Sainsbury’s has confirmed it will extend its use of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) across 150 additional stores ahead of the Christmas trading period as it look to stem shoplifting and prevent abuse against frontline staff.

The roll out follows a trail of Facewatch’s FRT solution in 55 stores, which had yielded significant reductions in incidents involving theft, abuse and antisocial behaviour, which fell by -46%. It also helped tackle repeat offences, with 92% of identified offenders not returning stores in the pilot.

While the solution is powered by FRT, the grocer said that all alerts generated by the system were manually reviewed by its human security team before action is taken, with images of shoppers who aren’t involved in crime instantly deleted.

The retailer confirmed it wasn’t using the technology to monitor regular customers and employees, and pointed to its 99.98% accuracy rate in identifying offenders.

The move by Sainsbury’s follows Asda also piloting FRT in five of its Greater Manchester stores last year, which prompted backlash from privacy campaigners, which its Executive Chair, Allan Leighton, robustly defended.

Speaking to Grocery Gazette, he said: “We have on an average four or five assaults on our colleagues every day, and that is unacceptable. We will do whatever we need to do, within the law, that enables that number to come down.”

“Our number one task is to look after our people, and we will do that whatever. That’s is what that is all about, and it’s completely in line with any of the rules and regulations,” he added.