Some Halifax businesses have recently taken up newer technologies and social media to fight shoplifting. They've done everything from putting photos of alleged criminals on their front doors to posting surveillance video on Facebook.
In some cases, the pro-active approach is producing results.
Instead of first taking surveillance video of a shoplifter to police, Halifax store co-owner Tammy Slynn posted it on Facebook.
Slynn paid for state of the art surveillance equipment because shoplifters have cost her thousands of dollars.
"It’s affecting everybody I employ,” she says. “It increases all my prices for my customers, we try hard to keep our prices low, but stuff like this really hurts us."
She says posting pictures of shoplifters online has worked before.
"The first time we got a great response,” says Slynn. “Within an hour, I found out who the person was, and so, social media really works for us in trying to find out who's stealing our product."
After posting the most recent video, Slynn says the woman seen in the surveillance footage returned to the store and confessed to stealing a purse.
Another store, in the north end of Halifax, has also put technology to use to discourage shoplifting. Customers are warned before they enter.
"We do have a high-tech security system in place, at both our shops both here at Hydrostone and in Bedford,” says gift shop co-owner Mark Smith. “We believe that's one of the tools that would prevent any potential shoplifter from entering the store."
So far, the store’s owners say shoplifting hasn't been an issue.
"Our actual policy is to, if we do catch someone on video shoplifting, we would make that visual available to the police, and let them do their work with that," says Smith.
Police say handing shoplifting cases to them may be the better choice than posting video of suspects on social media first.
"We’re not going to tell businesses not to do this, however, they could leave themselves open to some liability,” says Halifax Regional Police Cst. Dianne Penfound. “I would suggest that if they have pictures or information that they provide it to police."
Police regularly release photos and videos of suspects.
"But, we've done a thorough investigation prior to releasing those pictures to make sure we've done our due diligence," says Cst. Penfound.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ron Shaw
