Independent evaluators of Foodstuffs North Island’s (FSNI) facial recognition trial says the technology reduces serious harm in supermarkets by an estimated 16% and has strong public support, justifying its use.
FSNI’s six-month trial, conducted from February 2024, involved 25 New World and PAK’nSAVE stores throughout the North Island. The goal was to determine whether FR could effectively reduce serious harm in stores while respecting customer privacy through strict processes.
The final evaluation report by independent analytics firm, Scarlatti, which monitored and evaluated the trial, found there was “strong quantitative evidence” that the use of FR reduced serious harmful behaviour in trial stores.
Scarlatti’s report says a total of 1,742 FR alerts of offenders and their accomplices were generated across stores during the trial – an average of 70 a store – of which around 50% resulted in the person being approached.
Scarlatti Director, Dr Adam Barker, said the 16% harm reduction was equivalent to around 100 serious harm events averted, including assaults, abuse and other aggressive or disorderly conduct.
“Around half of that reduction can be attributed to actual interventions by supermarket staff, approaching someone who’s a repeat offender before they can do more harm, with the remainder due to the deterrent effect, stopping them returning,” Dr Barker said.
Responding to increase retail crime
Foodstuffs North Island’s General Counsel, Julian Benefield said the co-op had in recent years seen a sharp increase in the level of retail crime in stores, particularly violent and aggressive crime.
“We have a moral and legal duty to do all we can to keep our teams and customers safe. The goal has been to learn if facial recognition can reduce harm while respecting everyone’s privacy,” he said.
FSNI’s latest retail crime statistics, for the July to September 2024 quarter, show the total number of incidents was 4,933, up nearly 5% on the previous quarter, and up 41% on the same period in 2023. Repeat offenders were responsible for almost 38% of all incidents, including 554 cases of breaching trespass. There were 40 assaults during the quarter, up from 29 a year earlier.
“Every case of assault and abuse has an impact on at least one of our team members – they can even be life-changing events. Our stores must be allowed to take the reasonable steps available to them to try to ensure that doesn’t keep happening,” Mr Benefield said.
New Zealanders support use of facial recognition
Scarlatti’s report said there was no detectable change in sales volumes at trial stores relative to other Foodstuffs stores, suggesting few customers changed their shopping preferences due to the technology being trialled.
New research reveals how New Zealand consumers feel about the use of facial recognition (FR) in retail settings, with 66% of Kiwis accepting of the use of facial recognition, even if the impact it has on reducing harm from incidents of retail crime is minimal.
Acceptance increased along with harm minimisation:
- 66% said they will accept it even if the harm minimisation is very small
- 79% would accept FR even if it only achieved a 0.7% reduction in harm
- 86% would accept FR if it achieved a 3% reduction in harm
- 89% would accept FR if it achieved a 10% reduction in harm
- 6% said they will never accept it even if it meant 100% harm reduction – they were philosophically opposed to it
“Keeping our team members and customers safe and well is always our top priority,” said Mr Benefield.
“At the same time, we’re committed to being one of the most customer-focused retailers in the world. That’s why it’s so important for us to understand how customers feel about the technology we use.”
The research was conducted on behalf of Foodstuffs North Island by One Picture who are experts in the consumer insights field.
They also looked at customer experiences and how safe they feel, with most of those surveyed saying they’ve either witnessed or experienced some sort of harm when shopping in retail. 63% said they’ve seen others being physically assaulted, verbally abused or seen disorderly conduct when visiting a retail store while 44% said they’ve personally experienced physical assaults, verbal abuse or been affected by others’ disorderly conduct.
Foodstuffs North Island will now await the findings of the Privacy Commissioner’s public inquiry into its facial recognition trial, before deciding on any further use of FR in its stores. The 25 stores that were part of the trial are continuing to use FR in the interim.
