Constabulary continues to tackle retail crime with facial recognition technology

Cheshire Constabulary is continuing to tackle retail crime by increasing the use of retrospective facial recognition technology to identify and prosecute shoplifters across the county.

The news coincides with the Constabulary supporting the national awareness week for Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, commencing on Monday 16th March.

During the week, officers will be out across the force tackling a range of retail crime, while engaging with local businesses and members of the public under Operation Watchmaker.

As part of this, officers will be encouraging retailers, security staff and business partners to join its ‘Report and Support’ campaign.

This involves retailers not only reporting incidents of shoplifting and other crime, but then also supporting the police investigation by ensuring images and videos of suspects or other visual evidence - captured on CCTV or security staff’s body worn cameras - are submitted to police.

Images or videos which show suspects’ faces enable officers to use retrospective facial recognition technology to help identify those involved, increasing the chances of those responsible being prosecuted.

Chief Inspector Dan Reynolds said:

“The impact of retail crime cannot be underestimated and this national week of action from the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships is a testament to our collective ongoing efforts to tackle this issue head-on.

“Business Crime Reduction Partnerships unite the local business community with police and local authorities to help prevent anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, and other retail-related crime.

“By asking retailers and partners to ‘Report and Support’ we can better utilise facial recognition technology which is a powerful investigative tool which helps us quickly identify suspects and stop repeat offending.

“Facial recognition is already used frequently across the force to identify suspects involved in a range of offences. The ‘Report and Support’ campaign aims to directly appeal to the business community to ensure visual evidence is submitted in a timely manner so we can make the most of what this technology has to offer.

“Police will be out across the week as part of Operation Watchmaker to raise awareness of the impact of retail crime, and I would urge anyone with any concerns to speak to an officer.”

Chief Inspector Darren Griffiths added:

“Facial recognition technology is the latest capability provided to officers to improve our response in achieving justice more efficiently and making the county a hostile place for criminals to operate.

“This technology allows us to tackle business crime head on, help those in need in our community, and it is just one of the many ways in which we are arming ourselves to target known offenders who are intent on committing crime in Cheshire.”

You can report retail crime to Cheshire Police by calling 101 or 999 in an emergency, or by reporting it via the Cheshire Police website.