Tesco Provides Body Cameras to Grocery Workers After Spike in Violence

Tesco, the largest grocery chain in Britain, is cracking down on abusive customers by providing store workers with body cameras, company CEO Ken Murphy wrote in an op-ed in the Daily Mail.

In 2022, incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers almost doubled to 850 from roughly 450 per day in 2019 and 2020, Murphy wrote citing findings from the British Retail Consortium. In Tesco alone, physical assaults are up by a third from the same time last year, Murphy said.

To combat the “unacceptable” spike in verbal and physical attacks against employees, Murphy said the chain is providing workers with body cameras.

“We’ve also rolled out body-worn cameras for colleagues that need them in order to deter offenders,” he wrote. “Money spent on making sure people are safe at work is always well spent, but it should not have to be like this.”

Tesco has already invested £44 million ($55 million) in security measures, including door access systems, protection screens and radios, over the last four years,  Murphy said.

The British government last year made assaulting store employees an “aggravating factor” in sentencing, which gives offenders longer sentences. In his op-ed, Murphy called on the government to make violence towards retail workers an offense.

He also called for greater transparency in the justice process if an assailant is apprehended at a store.

“We need better links between police forces and businesses to prevent crime in the first place,” Murphy wrote. “Gangs take advantage of the fact we do not share enough information. We’ll only be able to stop these thugs if we work together.”

For years, the British Home Affairs Committee has been calling for a stronger police response to violence and abuse against retail employees. In a 2021 study, the Association of Convenience Stores found that 89% of local shop workers in Britain had experienced some form of abuse.