man ‘publicly humiliated’ after shop staff using facial recognition cameras mistake him for thief

Warren Rajah outside the Sainbury’s store in Elephant and Castle where he was asked to leave (Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)

A man was ordered out of a Sainsbury’s store he had shopped in for 10 years after staff using facial recognition cameras mistook him for a criminal.

Warren Rajah entered the store next to the Elephant and Castle station on Tuesday when he was suddenly approached by two members of staff and a security guard.

They took his shopping away from him and walked him out of the building,and when asked why,they simply pointed to a sign revealing the store used facial recognition technology.

Warren,42,told Metro: ‘They came up to me and asked to see my “bar code”. I didn’t know what this meant so I just showed them my Nectar card.

‘Then they told me to leave. It was the most humiliating moment of my life,being escorted out the place I have shopped in for 10 years in front of my community.’

The supermarket had cameras operated by Facewatch in use,which according to their website has a 99.98% accuracy of recognising offenders.

Warren said he was ‘publicly humiliated’ after being asked to leave

(Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)

They describe themselves on their website as,‘the only crime prevention tool that proactively identifies known criminals,allowing staff to act before a crime has been committed’.

But to prove he did not in fact have any criminal convictions,Warren had to submit a subject access request to Facewatch asking them to explain what data they held on him. To do this,he had to email an image of himself alongside a copy of his passport.

He said: ‘This just feels like a massive invasion of my privacy. Why should I be proving I am innocent to them?

‘I started panicking massively because I don’t know anything about this company or what they do. Do they record crimes as they happen? Are they linked to law enforcement? Would this impact my career?’

It comes as facial recognition cameras are deployed across London,by police and retailers alike.

The sign letting customers know facial recognition cameras were in operation (Picture: Supplied by Warren Rajah)

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What is Live Facial Recognition?

Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology to prevent and detect crime and find wanted criminals.When people pass through an area with a camera,their images are streamed directly to the LFR system and compared to a watchlist.It can also help establish who a person is if they are unable to communicate who they are.LFR is often used at large events or in busy areas,typically on top of vans driven around by police.It was first used by UK police in England and Wales at the 2017 UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff.The Met Police is already facing a legal challenge over their use of the technology,which matches faces against criminal databases.But private companies have their own databases submitted by independent and chains,of people they believe to have been stealing from them.He said: ‘Sainsbury’s has called me to apologise and offered me a £75 voucher,but that’s not the point. What if this had happened to someone much more vulnerable than me?’Both the supermarket and technology company claimed it was not the fault of the cameras,but human error by staff inside the store who approached the wrong person.Facewatch said: ‘We’re sorry to hear about Mr Rajah’s experience and understand why it would have been upsetting.‘This incident arose from a case of human error in-store,where a member of staff approached the wrong customer.‘Our Data Protection team followed the usual process to confirm his identity and verified that he was not on our database and had not been subject to any alerts generated by Facewatch.’But Warren added that although the technology may seem ‘perfect’,if it is not applied properly ‘people will get hurt’.He said: ‘However perfect the technology may be,it still relies on there to be human intervention.‘And if people are not trained to properly manage and handle and make the right decisions,you will always end up with innocent people being hurt.’Sainsbury’s said: ‘We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store.‘This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store.’