Tesco workers are being offered body cameras following an increase in violent attacks, according to the grocer’s CEO.
Physical assaults at the grocery giant have risen by a third since 2022, Ken Murphy shared in The Mail on Sunday, as he called for stricter laws for the perpetrators.
Although recent law changes have made attacking a shop employee an “aggravating factor” in convictions, Murphy wants the “abuse or violence towards retail workers” to become an offence.
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The supermarket boss said: “Crime is a scourge on society, and an insult to shoppers and retail workers. It is time we put an end to it.”
Earlier this year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed abuse against retail workers had nearly doubled that of pre-Covid levels.
The supermarket is now rolling out body-worn cameras to deter offenders. Back in 2020, the Co-op introduced the technology to hundreds of stores.
Murphy said Tesco had also invested £44m in security measures such as door access systems, protection screens and digital radios over the last four years.
However, Murphy urged for change in how shop crime is dealt with by the authorities.
He added that businesses should be informed on how cases are proceeding when someone is charged for committing a crime in store as this would help retailers to “spot patterns and provide reassurance that justice is being done.”
Murphy also called for better links between police forces and businesses as he claimed that gangs take advantage of the fact that little information was shared.
“We’ll only be able to stop these thugs if we work together,” he wrote in the newspaper.
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