Some Walmart store employees are now wearing body cameras as part of a pilot program.
“While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry,” Walmart said in a statement to Retail Dive. “This is a pilot we are testing in one market, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions.”
The body camera initiative is focused on worker safety and is not related to loss prevention or theft, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Walmart is currently testing the technology at a handful of stores in the Dallas market.
“Retailers are making every effort to ensure the safety and well-being of their customers, associates and communities,” David Johnston, the National Retail Federation’s vice president of asset protection and retail operations, told Retail Dive in an email. “The use of body cameras is still a newer technology being used in retail and individual retailers are finding how this technology best works within their environments.”
Johnston pointed to an NRF study released Tuesday in collaboration with the Loss Prevention Research Council and SensorMatic that found about 91% of the senior loss prevention and retail industry security executives surveyed said shoplifter violence and aggression has risen compared to 2019.
Retailers have implemented a variety of security measures to protect in-store associates and the merchandise from theft and acts of violence, the report says. The enhanced security measures include locking up merchandise; removing products from the sales floor; RFID tagging; shopping cart locks; receipt checks or exit gates; and posting uniformed security or law enforcement in stores. The report acknowledged that some of these measures “negatively impact the customer experience.”
According to 84% of those polled in the survey, violence during a crime has become more of a concern than it was a year ago. Fifty five percent said guest-related violence was more of a concern, 40% cited employee-related violence and 34% named mass violence or an active assailant.
“Workers have been sounding the alarm on Walmart’s workplace safety crisis for years. From mass shootings, to physical and verbal assaults from customers, associates do not feel safe,” Terrysa Guerra, co-executive director of retail advocacy group United for Respect, told Retail Dive in a statement. “As the largest private employer in the country, Walmart has the resources to make real changes to improve worker safety, and this rollout of body cameras is not an adequate solution.”
Guerra said there’s limited evidence body cameras will improve associate safety. Instead what associates need, Guerra said, is a larger workforce investment, along with higher staffing levels, improved safety training and enhanced safety protocols.
Retail and grocery stores nationwide have often been the scene of mass violence in recent years, including in 2022, when a Walmart supervisor shot and killed six people and injured four others inside a Chesapeake, Virginia store.
