Enhancing Retail Safety with Technology

Despite spending £339 million on crime prevention across the retail sector, incidents of violence, abuse and theft continue to rise. Employers should be questioning how far these measures go in increasing the feeling of safety for workers.

The first step may be to acknowledge that there is an issue with staff safety concerns; the second may be to consider a different solution to employee safety.

Personal safety technology can help whether your staff face targeted abuse, harassment, stalking or domestic abuse. Retailers can tackle the issue of colleague safety and crime risk by providing dedicated personal safety devices and app technology.

Leveraging technology not only enhances safety but also offers a cost-effective solution compared to security guards. For example, one manned guard for a week may cost the same as having five personal safety devices for a year.

With this service, retail workers can respond to incidents of violence or abuse by activating the SOS Alarm function. Peoplesafe’s specialised control centre triages every alarm to support colleagues while filtering false alarms from being passed on to the emergency services. When needed, the situation is escalated to appropriate contacts and a guaranteed Level 1 police response is summoned via a URN (Unique Reference Number).

This is a more effective solution than typical current measures. Stores usually rely on fixed panic alarms with no audio, only sending a silent alarm to the police. Unfortunately, this often leads to misuse and false alarms, risking the loss of URN access for three months. Reapplication is time-consuming and costly, as employers must implement a different security solution in the interim.

With the Peoplesafe solution, we retain responsibility for the URN, something we have never lost.

Retailers Working with Peoplesafe

Similarly, retailers have been seeing the benefits of deploying body worn cameras. They have proven to reduce staff assaults by 47% partly due to the deliberately obvious design which deters potential aggressors from acting on impulse and causing harm; and partly because the high-quality recording can be admissible as evidence in a prosecution.

Some employers are already taking decisive steps to further mitigate risk. The Works is one such example where they have equipped all stores deemed to be at risk with a MySOS personal safety device, connected to the Peoplesafe control centre.

Dave Pardoe, Head of Profit Protection at The Works, commented on where the solution is allocated:

“This may commonly be store colleagues but could also be someone we feel is at risk of being unsafe on their way in and out of work.

"The relationship we have with our staff is not a 9-5 thing. One of our staff has been at risk of harassment from a customer who has targeted them outside of work and we will look to provide them with a device or app to provide that level of protection.”

Fighting Crime with Better Incident Reporting

According to research by USDAW (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers), 61% said they were not confident that reporting abuse, threats and violence would make a difference.

A maximum of only 38% of retail crimes are reported to the police and we know that repeat offenders make up the majority of incidents. 30% of retailers stated that they don't report crime because of the time it takes to file and process reports. However, without reporting these incidents with evidence to the police, how can theft and abusive behaviour in stores be reduced?

Low-cost tech can help with this too. Implementing a simple process and capturing reliable evidence are two elements where technology can make incident reporting quicker and easier.

Audio recordings are gathered from every SOS alarm raised to Peoplesafe. In addition, body worn cameras are being used by several retailers to capture video evidence. These recordings can prevent potential litigation, speed up the process of filing a report and strengthen the retailer's case when law enforcement agencies consider prosecuting frequent abusers.

This comprehensive approach enhances staff safety but also provides invaluable support in legal matters, ensuring a safer and more secure environment for all.