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Tesco’s chief executive, Ken Murphy, has confirmed that the supermarket chain has equipped its members of staff with body-worn cameras, after seeing physical assaults rise by a third in a year.
Writing to the Mail on Sunday, Murphy said that as a result, he has called for a change in law in his article to make abuse or violence towards retail workers an offence across the UK.
According to Murphy, Tesco has invested £44m in the past four years on security measures – including door access systems, protection screens, digital radios and cameras – but said that more needs to be done against offenders.
Murphy said: “Money spent on making sure people are safe at work is always well spent, but it should not have to be like this. Crime is a scourge on society and an insult to shoppers and retail workers.
“I want those who break the law in our stores brought to book. After a long campaign by retailers and the union Usdaw, last year the government made attacking shop workers an aggravating factor in convictions – meaning offenders should get longer sentences.”
He added: “Judges should make use of this power. But we need to go further, as in Scotland, and make abuse or violence towards retail workers an offence in itself.”
Finally, he also called for better links with police forces and for businesses to be given a right to know how a case is proceeding when someone commits a crime in one of their stores, mentioning that this would help Tesco “spot patterns and provide reassurance that justice is being done”.
