Woolies plans facial recognition technology trial in two Canberra supermarkets

Supermarket chain Woolworths is considering a trial of facial recognition technology in two stores in Canberra in an attempt to better protect staff members from violent offenders frequenting their stores.

Woolworths stores in Woden and Gungahlin are being considered for the trial, and if it goes ahead, the technology could be implemented by the end of the month.

Woolworths' head of violence prevention Sarah Faorlin told 666 ABC Radio Canberra these two stores were chosen because of the "high number of workplace protection orders in place".

"The ACT unfortunately does have high levels of violence and aggression," Ms Faorlin said.

Workplace protection orders (WPOs) are legal orders used to prevent and reduce workplace violence, and the ACT was the first to introduce them in 2016.

Ms Faorlin said Woolworths has seen "great success" using WPOs in the territory, but "assessing the merits of facial recognition technology in-store is another way we can help protect team members and customers".

"The aim is to use facial recognition technology to actively monitor for repeat violent and aggressive offenders who frequent our stores to protect team safety," she said.

Ms Faorlin said Woolworths have seen a 460 per cent increase of "unacceptable incidents" in their stores nationally since 2020.

"It is appalling that our team members continue to face unprovoked violence and aggression when they're just trying to do their jobs," she said.

How will it work?

Ms Faorlin said the facial technology would scan every customer as they entered either the Woden or Gungahlin stores, creating a temporary biometric profile.

"That profile will be looked up against a known watch list [of] our repeat violent and aggressive offenders," she said.

"If there is no detection made, so our genuine customers, their biometric profile will be deleted within one second."

"If there is a detection made [staff] may have police called and our team will be alerted to their presence in store."

NSW and ACT Secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) Bernie Smith said it was his understanding that Woolworths would not "call the police every time their machine pings".

"They're going to call the police for somebody's breached the workplace protection order and that then becomes a matter for the police, because it's a criminal offence that has to be enforced by the police," he said.

Mr Smith said he was aware of the high levels of violence and aggression in the two stores Woolworths was considering.

"People might be thinking this is just about people getting angry at the checkouts," he said.

"To put this in context, next door to Woolworths Woden a couple of months ago, a member of ours was beaten up with a baseball bat."

He said that facial recognition technology could help combat violence "as long as it's done within very strict guidelines as part of a social licensing of it".

Ms Faorlin said Woolworths would be "really transparent" about the trial, and added that signage would be displayed outside the two supermarkets.

"We're currently in consultation with our store team to understand if this is something that they want to proceed with," she added.

If the consultation process is successful, the technology could be implemented by the end of this month.