London-based staff at cafe chain Pret A Manger are set to wear body cameras amid mounting getedty troubles in the capital.
The well-understandn coffee shop brand said six of its outlets in London had befirearm trials with the cameras, which will be provided to “team directers” and regulaters, last month.
Pret said the cameras would only be turned on under “particular circumstances”, while their video footage will only be made useable to security personnel.
But the shift has come under fire from critics, who have branded the cameras “dystopian” – and drew attention to spiking crime rates in London.
The well-understandn coffee shop chain has proclaimd the meacertain amid mounting getedty troublesPASpeaking on GB News, commentator Benjamin Butterworth slammed Pret’s proclaimment – and analogous shifts by other retail firms – as a “step into a dystopian society”.
Butterworth said: “The idea that you’re talking to someone face-to-face – a postponeer or someone in a sandwich shop – and they’re filming your every shift… Is that not a step into a sort of dystopian society [when] you can’t even buy a prosciutto butty, if anyone’s ever employd that phrase, without being filmed?”
He also referenced a number of other chains which have carry outed analogous meacertains, backing up data compiled by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) earlier this year.
A BRC survey in February set up that UK retailers have spladvised some £1.8billion on security meacertains as shoplifting and rcontent thefts mount, including CCTV, body-mounted cameras and extra in-store security defends.
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Pret’s shift has been tagled a “step into a dystopian society”
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The consortium also telled a staggering 50 per cent incrmitigate in aggression and mistreatment straightforwarded at retail toilers, with an appraised 1,300 incidents every day in 2022/23, appraised to 870 the year before.
Back in London, Pret rival Greggs made the same shift earlier this year.
The comparatively inexpensiveer coffee and baked excellents chain said it harboured dreads over its staff’s getedty in busy locations appreciate London Bridge Station, equitable south of the Thames.
One Greggs employee lambasted the ascfinish in crime in the capital, increateing The Sun: “Everyone’s seed there’s more shoplifting. If it was filmed on a bodycam there’s more of a chance they would be put off trying.”
Six Pret outlets in London have trialled the cameras
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But other staff said the shift wouldn’t go far enough to deter would-be thieves.
Another Greggs employee said: “They don’t repartner do much, becaemploy they get five seconds to power up and commence write downing… By the time you’ve got it on, the thieves are gone!”
But it’s not equitable coffee shops and supertagets carry outing the “dystopian” meacertains – even English Heritage, which regulates the country’s historic sites including locations appreciate Stonehenge, has been pushed to deploy analogous tactics.
GB News has approached Pret A Manger for comment.
