Facial recognition technology firm Facewatch sent more than half a million real-time offender alerts to retailers in 2025, more than doubling the number issued the previous year as retail crime continues to rise across the UK.
The platform issued 516,739 alerts to its retail subscriber network last year, up from 252,943 alerts in 2024 – an increase of just over 100% year on year. On average, Facewatch now sends 1,415 alerts per day, compared with 693 per day the previous year.
The alerts notify retailers in near real time when known prolific and repeat offenders enter premises protected by Facewatch’s live facial recognition technology, enabling staff to take preventative action.
Alert volumes surged at key points throughout the year. In July, the number of alerts sent in a single week exceeded 10,000 for the first time, with 43,602 recorded across the month. December set new records again, with 14,885 alerts sent in the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve and a total of 54,312 alerts for the month — the highest monthly figure to date.
Facewatch CEO Nick Fisher said the figures highlighted the “industrial scale” of retail crime and the growing reliance on technology to combat it.
“Retailers are dealing with levels of theft and aggression that would have been unthinkable a few years ago,” he said. “The fact that alerts have more than doubled in a single year reflects both the growth in repeat and organised offenders and the reality that retailers are under pressure to act faster, smarter and more collaboratively to keep employees and customers safe.”
The data comes amid wider concern about rising shoplifting levels. In October, the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) called for urgent action after Office for National Statistics figures revealed that 529,994 shoplifting offences were recorded in the year ending June – a 13% increase year on year. Bira described the situation as a “retail crime crisis”.
During the same month, Iceland executive chair Richard Walker also warned that the UK was facing a daily “war” against shoplifting on high streets, calling for stronger measures to protect retailers and staff.
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