New Zealand Introduces Facial Recognition At Grocery Stores Amidst Rise In Crime Wave

The corporation, Foodstuffs North Island, first announced on February 8th that they will begin trialing it in a select 25 New World and Pak’nSave storefront locations. The company explained how the process will operate:

FR works by matching, in real time, the faces of people who enter a store against that store’s record of offenders and accomplices. The FR system analyses facial features and converts them into an alphanumeric computer code. Both the images and the code will be securely stored.

The stores taking part in the trial will be a combination of PAK’nSAVE and New World supermarkets in cities and towns around the North Island. Each store will have clear signage at the entrance. When someone enters the store, their image will be taken by the FR system and instantly compared against the store’s record of previous offenders and accomplices. Only images of offenders and accomplices who actively assist in offending will be retained.