Facewatch, the live facial recognition crime prevention platform, issued 516,739 alerts to its retail subscriber network in 2025, up from 252,943 alerts in 2024, representing an increase of just over 100% year-on-year.

On a daily basis, Facewatch now sends an average of 1,415 alerts per day, compared with 693 per day in 2024. The alerts are designed to notify retailers in near real time when known prolific and repeat offenders enter stores protected by the company’s live facial recognition technology.

The figures illustrate the “industrial scale” of retail crime now facing businesses, and the increasingly important role of technology in tackling it, said Nick Fisher, CEO of Facewatch.

“Retailers are dealing with levels of theft and aggression that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. The fact that alerts have more than doubled in a single year reflects both the growth in repeat and organised offenders and the reality that retailers are under pressure to act faster, smarter and more collaboratively to keep employees and customers safe.”

During 2025, Facewatch reported three new peaks in offender activity across UK retail, as measured by the number of alerts issued. In July, the volume of alerts sent in a single week exceeded 10,000 for the first time, with 43,602 alerts recorded across the month.

In December, the number of alerts sent in one week hit a new record, with 14,885 sent over the seven days up to Christmas Eve with the total number of alerts hitting 54,312, a new monthly record.

Facewatch’s system issued alerts with an average response time of just nine seconds, including cases requiring verification by a team of specialist Facial Analysts, where a live facial recognition match requires human intervention before being sent to the retailer. This enables frontline retail staff to take preventative action before offences are committed and to safely prepare for known anti-social or violent offenders.

Fisher said the data demonstrated why retailers are increasingly investing in preventative technology, rather than relying solely on post-incident reporting and the criminal justice system.

“Retail crime has become faster, more organised and more brazen,” he said. “Retailers need tools that move at the same pace. Real-time alerts are now a core part of that response.”