WHSmith becomes latest retailer to provide staff with bodycams to combat violent shoplifters
WHSmith has become the latest retailer to provide staff with bodycams to combat violent shoplifters.
Employees at 579 branches will use them to record evidence of abuse and attacks.
WHSmith is also fitting security tags to thousands of items worth £10-plus.
Cashiers at one branch in East Ham, East London, have to work behind plastic screens.
And even low-cost theft targets, including vapes and football stickers, are kept behind tills.
WHSmith confirmed: “We use body-worn cameras in some of our stores as one of the ways we support our colleagues in the fight against retail crime.”
Its move comes a month after 90 retailers wrote to Home Secretary Suella Braverman calling for tougher punishments for thugs who attack shop workers.
The British Retail Consortium’s Graham Wynn said: “Thieves are becoming bolder and more aggressive, with over 850 incidents of violence and abuse a day.
“The cost of theft has soared to almost £1billion a year.”
Last week Lidl announced it was equipping staff with bodycams to help tackle soaring levels of shoplifting.
Poundland also said it was going to introduce the devices after workers reported being physically threatened and even spat at.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have already introduced bodycams.