Walmart piloting drastic safety precaution amid recent crime surge

Walmart is testing a dramatic security measure as concerns about crime and shoplifting in its stores grow.

The grocery giant has rolled out body cameras to employees at multiple stores in the Dallas area to help deter and address confrontations with aggressive customers. reported the New York Post.

“This is a pilot we are testing in one market, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions,” a company spokesperson said of the initiative.

“While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used in retail,” she added.

The bodycam devices were seen on employees checking customer receipts at a store in Denton, Texas, CNBC reported.

In the pilot, Walmart provided its employees with instructions on how and when to use the cameras.

Employees are advised to “record an event if an interaction with a customer escalates,” but to remove cameras in employee break rooms and bathrooms, according to an internal document seen by CNBC.

If there is an incident, employees log the information in the ‘ethics and compliance’ app.

Retailers have experienced an increase in self-checkout thefts and smash-and-grab incidents in recent years.

In some cases, stores like Safeway have even been forced to close locations due to safety concerns for staff and shoppers.

Retail experts have advised that body cameras can be an effective deterrent to crime and aggressive customer behavior.

“A lot of these body-worn cameras have rearview monitors, so there’s a little video screen where you actually see yourself on the camera,” David Johnston, vice president of asset protection for the National Retail Federation, told CNBC.

‘That in itself can be a very big deterrent. The moment you see yourself is probably [when] you’re going to change your behavior, and that’s what I think using a body-worn camera can do.”

Walmart has tested several other methods in recent months to reduce shoplifting in its stores.

The chain recently introduced a feature that allows customers to easily move an item across the self-checkout scanner, which registers the item without having to scan a visible barcode.

The new technology works on all Walmart Great Value branded items, such as graham crackers, chocolate bars and croissant sandwiches.

Body cameras are often worn by law enforcement officers to record incidents

The invisible barcodes were created to speed up the checkout process for employees and customers, who now no longer have to search for a barcode and place the item in a corner to scan it.

Another consequence, however, is that it becomes more difficult for shoplifters to put items in their pockets without properly scanning them.

If an item with an invisible barcode is moved over the self-checkout, in an attempt to give the impression that it has been scanned but it has not, the computer will still pick up the item and register it for payment.