People who visit shopping centers and stores throughout Texas may be interested to learn that getting caught shoplifting in one store could result in a ban from shopping at other stores. This is due to the fact that some stores have begun using facial recognition technology to capture digital records of potential shoplifters.
As digital records can be shared, other stores may determine a particular person to be a threat if one store captures that person potentially shoplifting. As such, another shop could consider a person a threat before that person ever enters the building and ban them as a result. In theory, a person who is considered a shoplifting threat can be banned from all shops.
While this technology may help prevent shoplifters, there have been some concerns raised regarding the potential overreach. Some argue that it could be a possible violation of privacy. Additionally, there is no standard on how precise the accuracy rates are required to be. This could potentially lead to cases where innocent shoppers are marked as threats. The companies that sell the cameras capable of facial recognition technology reportedly do not consider personal privacy to be a concern.
When a person is accused of shoplifting or other similar crimes, the potential punishments could range in severity from fines to jail time. In some cases, the accused person could be intimidated into taking a plea deal, even if the alleged crime does not fit the punishment. A criminal law attorney may be able to reduce or even eliminate the charges by fully investigating the allegations and arguing if the evidence does not provide proof that the accused person actually committed the crime. Further, if facial recognition technology was used to accuse a person, the attorney might argue that the technology violated the accused person’s rights, leading to reduced or even dismissed charges.