Matthew Hunt, Filco Supermarkets, South Wales

“I’ve got facial recognition in all my stores and a central CCTV monitoring station has a live feed into all of the stores. We’ve got AI technology from Veesion that adds another layer of protection. The live monitoring ties it all together. You get alerts. You can tackle people before they enter and try to conceal products. It makes for a safer working environment.

“If you can tackle a known individual before they get their hands on a product, the adrenaline isn’t present, and they’ll leave the store without a confrontation. You depower the whole thing. Tell them the game’s up, and nine times out of 10 they will leave the store.

“We’ve got a better relationship with the police because we’ve got an end-to-end reporting model. If you don’t have quality CCTV, they just leave you to it. We can provide them with the tools they need to progress a prosecution.”

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Vishal Trivedi, D&R News, Bolton, Lancashire

“WEechanged all the locks, added alarm systems and fitted electric magnets to the doors, which gives us more security at night. You can get glass alarms so you can hear if anyone breaks a window. We upgraded our security because we’ve had a lot of people causing trouble in the supermarkets.

“The most important thing is CCTV. People overlook it, but I spent £2,000 on new CCTV, and that’s helped in cases where things have got out of hand. We’ve been able to go straight to the police, and it’s saved loads of time. We have six different angles of the same counter area, so if something happens, we can always ????ind out exactly what has occurred.

In other cases, we’ve seen the police haven’t had the right angle to prosecute. Most of the problems with theft happen during opening hours because at night there’s always someone staying at the store for security reasons.”

Rishi Patel, 11 Nisa and Spar stores, Hampshire

“ALL my stores are now police-monitored. We’ve installed panic buttons under all the counters. You hit a button and a siren goes off. If you hit a second button, the police should turn up. We’ve got face-recognition cameras. If someone is stealing, we can record their face. The next time they come in, it starts beeping. “We’ve put mag locks in a few shops where you can press a button and it locks the doors so the person can’t get out. We tried putting security tags on spirits, but we’ve moved them from the shop ????loor to behind the counter. “I recommend retailers don’t invest too much in security because, ultimately, people are going to do it anyway, and you can’t stop them all. “So long as you’re safeguarding your staff, stock loss is just a part of the business. It’s far cheaper to lose some stock to theft than to employ a security guard at your door.”

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