Foodstuffs North Island’s (FSNI) six-month facial recognition (FR) trial has ended.
Early results have shown that FR reduced serious harmful incidents by avoiding an estimated 130 incidents, such as assault and verbal abuse. This led to improved safety and a decrease in retail crime while respecting customers' privacy.
In February, FSNI started a trial of FR at 25 New World and PAK’nSAVE stores to determine if the technology could help stores identify repeat offenders and enhance the safety of both staff and customers.
FR matches the faces of people who enter a store against that store’s record of past offenders and accomplices. When the system detects a facial match with at least 90 percent accuracy, two specially trained team members are alerted, and both must confirm a match identification before the information can be acted on.
According to early results from the trial’s independent evaluator, the use of FR avoided an estimated 130 serious incidents, such as assault and verbal abuse, across the 25 trial stores compared to severe previous incident data. FR also appeared to have deterred repeat offenders, who have reduced their store visits.
There has also been an 8 percent quarterly decrease in retail crime incidents across all FSNI stores and a 42 percent quarterly fall in serious incidents.
FSNI Chief Executive Chris Quin said the early trial results showed that FR effectively reduced harm and improved safety. The co-op will not decide on its future use until it receives the final results from the independent evaluator.
“The safety and well-being of our team members and customers is our top priority, so avoiding an estimated 130 incidents of our people or customers being attacked or abused is a significant achievement,” said Quin.
“We’ve been concerned about the growing trend of our staff or customers being put in harm’s way. We’ll wait for the final report, but while the numbers are still far too high, our well-publicised FR trial might have made a real difference.”
There were 1,747 alerts across the 25 trial stores during the six-month trial. For approximately one-quarter of all incidents, store teams observed the identified match; for another quarter, they took no action. The repeat offender was asked to leave in just under half of cases.
Quin said that all too often, the same people kept turning up at a store despite being trespassed, causing more harm and committing more crimes.
“Stores trialling FR became around 40 percent better at recognising trespassed people than our control stores. Information is crucial, and knowing an offender is in store means the team are informed and can decide on the safest response, which half the time is simply observing.”
He added that FR was as much about deterrence as any in-store security system was about identification.
“If it prevents repeat offenders from returning to stores where they’re barred and keeps our people and customers safe, it’s a worthwhile investment.”
FSNI will await the final report from Scarlatti, an independent research and analytics company, before deciding what happens next.
FSNI General Counsel Julian Benefield said the trial had taught the co-op some crucial lessons, including that it needed to be supported by robust processes and intense training to be effective.
“The trial has been an opportunity for us to learn and improve. Our teams have taken privacy considerations extremely seriously and understand their responsibilities,” said Benefield.
“We’ve proven through our trial that with the right systems, processes and training, FR can help make our stores safer by keeping repeat offenders out. Store teams have told us they feel safer, and we know from surveying customers at trial stores that nine out of ten don’t mind it. “
The 25 stores that participated in the trial will continue to use FR in the interim, using the same privacy protocols and processes they used during the trial. FSNI is waiting for the final report from the evaluators and the outcome of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s inquiry into its use of FR.
“We’re respectful of the work of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and will carefully review their findings. The goal of the trial has always been to establish if FR can help keep our people and customers safe without compromising their privacy. These early results show FR has made a significant difference in reducing harm and improving safety.”
