Smart, data-led policing in focus as the UK police register biggest crackdown on retail crime
In the most significant action against retail crime in recent times, the UK police has arrested over 90 people and are in the process of deporting a few. According to the police, these arrests account for crimes totalling 4 million GBP across retail stores in the UK (see news).
Overcoming challenges posed by crime syndicates
In a bid to avoid getting caught, offenders involved in organized crime are targeting multiple regions and retail chains. In a few cases such as Coop, the same store faced three instances of retail theft on the same day.
To tackle such challenges, the newly set up Opal unit of the police has started collaborating with regional police departments as well as retail companies to track organized crime. This approach has reaped dividends as evidenced in the latest crackdown on retail crime.
CCTV offers decisive evidence
Centralized police teams are checking CCTV images and footage against the national database to identify individuals who are involved in retail crime. As they have started sourcing such data across borders, the police are now confident that offenders will find it increasingly difficult to hide.
However, the retail store staff view the task of collecting CCTV images and footage of incidents as an additional burden as they need to review hours of footage before they can shortlist and extract the relevant data.
AI-backed CCTV surveillance
By combining the existing CCTV infrastructure with AI-powered detection capabilities, retail stores can simplify the task of collecting video evidence on shoplifting. SAI group’s visual AI platform can be easily integrated with existing CCTV infrastructure, enabling the detection of a wide variety of theft patterns such as aisle theft, item concealment, item switching, incorrect billing, short payments, and checkout fraud.
The technology platform alerts customers as well when it detects anomalies, enabling customers to take corrective action without intervention from the store staff. For instance, in cases of incorrect product scanning, which could have been a result of inadvertent action, the solution will inform the customer through an alert at the counter enabling the customers to act on their own.
SAI Group’s visual AI works in the background, analysing and shortlisting footage of interest, discreetly inform the store staff about incidents as and when they occur, and provides ready to submit, legally admissible video and photographic evidence – without any manual intervention.
Easy to deploy, cost-effective AI
One of the biggest challenges that AI solution providers face today is to make their solutions cost-effective. Whether it is a fixed cost or a per-seat subscription, AI solutions need to ensure that:
- They cover their costs in terms of the computing resources that they consume
- Their customers do not find it difficult to justify the costs incurred while adopting AI solutions.
SAI Group offers highly competitive solutions that ensure return on investment within a few months of deployment.
About SAI
As a leader in computer vision technology, SAI Group delivers cutting-edge, multi-modal AI solutions into retail environments. Using a unique platform approach, its technology uses existing camera systems to target losses, increase store safety, and underpin operational efficiencies.
All solutions are built from the ground up to ensure the highest levels of security and data protection, respecting the privacy expectations of the public and operating to stringent ethical standards while delivering substantial value to our clients. Globally, SAI monitors millions of transactions per day, protecting the revenues from tens of millions of product sales and hundreds of millions of customer interactions. Its models also accurately identify anti-social behaviour, aggression and violence, helping to de-escalate situations with real-time interfaces to security officers and operations centres.
