Some Walmart employees test body cameras

Some Walmart employees in Texas are wearing body cameras as part of a pilot program to improve employee safety in stores.

Workers at several stores located in Denton, Texas, about 40 miles north of Dallas, began testing body cameras. The locations also have signs warning shoppers that body cameras are being used.

“While we don’t discuss the details of our security measures, we are always looking for new and innovative technologies used in the retail industry,” Walmart said in a statement to FOX Business.

CEOS SAY SHRINKAGE IS easing, BUT EXPERTS WARN RETAIL THEFT IS NOT: ‘TWO DIFFERENT CONVERSATIONS’

However, since the program is still in its early stages, the company is only testing it in this market. Walmart plans to evaluate the results of the pilot “before making long-term decisions,” the spokesperson said.

An employee picks up shopping carts at Walmart in Burbank, California. (Robyn Beck/AFP via / Getty Images)

A person familiar with the matter told FOX Business that this testing is part of a more comprehensive security program and is not specifically designed as an anti-theft measure.

However, the move comes shortly after TJX Companies, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, said in June that it was equipping employees with body cameras to deter theft.

TARGET EXECUTIVE WARNS RETAIL REDUCTION REMAINS A ‘SIGNIFICANT HEADWIND’

TJX said it began using body cameras in certain stores in its U.S. portfolio, which also includes Sierra and Home Sense, over the past year as a means to “reduce incidents, deter crime and demonstrate to our associates and customers we take “We are taking safety in our stores seriously,” a TJX Companies spokesperson told FOX Business in June.

An employee scans items at a Walmart checkout in Burbank, California. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)

The spokesperson specified that the cameras are specifically used by loss prevention associates, who are trained on how to use the cameras effectively, and the images are “only shared at the request of law enforcement or in response to a subpoena.”

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Businesses collectively lost $112.1 billion in 2022 due to retail theft, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2023 National Retail Security Survey. According to NRF’s latest study, “The Impact of Retail Theft & Violence 2024”, around 91% of respondents say shoplifters are displaying more violence and aggression compared to 2019.

Walmart employees walk down an aisle in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Given the persistent problem, David Johnston, NRF’s vice president of asset protection and retail operations, told FOX Business that “retailers are doing everything they can to ensure the safety and well-being of their customers, associates and communities,” but that “The use of body cameras is still a newer technology used in retail.”

According to Johnston, individual retailers are still looking at how this “technology works best in their environments.”