Sign of the Times? Facial-Recognition Software Coming to Stores

(By Jim Denison) I still remember my first crime. I was 6 or 7-years-old and was standing with my mother in the grocery store checkout line. As she paid for our food, I snatched a pack of chewing gum from a nearby rack and buried it in my pocket. I have not shoplifted since. Apparently, I’m the exception to the rule. The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (its existence tells us this is a serious problem) reports that 1 in 11 Americans is a shoplifter. Many become addicted to the
rush of getting away with their crime; 57 percent of adult shoplifters say it is hard for them to stop even when they’re apprehended. Enter facial-recognition software, which uses biometrics of known shoplifters from store databases and police logs. Every visitor’s face is tracked automatically and compared at 30 frames per second. A match is sent to employees’ smartphones. One company says its software has reduced shoplifting by 91 percent. READ MORE