- The figures come just days after an analysis of Home Office statistics reveal 'shoplifters' have a 98% chance of avoiding a prison sentence
- Offender activity in the run-up to Christmas hit the highest levels ever recorded
- Average speed of alerts sent to retailers after a live facial recognition match is 9 seconds
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 organised and repeat retail crime continued to escalate across the UK.
The live facial recognition crime prevention platform issued 516,739 alerts to its retail subscriber network in 2025, up from 252,943 alerts in 2024 – an increase of just over 100 per cent year-on-year.
On a daily basis, Facewatch now sends an average of 1,415 alerts a day, compared with 693 per day in 2024, underlining both the rising volume of offending and the growing reliance by retailers on rapid, intelligence-led responses to protect staff and stores.
The alerts are designed to notify retailers in near real time when known prolific and repeat offenders enter shop premises protected by the company's live facial recognition technology.
In 2025, Facewatch’s system issued alerts with an average response time of just nine seconds, enabling frontline retail staff to take preventative action before offences are committed and to safely prepare for known anti-social or violent offenders.
This average speed of response time includes offender alerts requiring checks by a team of specialist Facial Analysts, when a live facial recognition match requires human intervention before being sent to the retailer.
Nick Fisher, CEO of Facewatch, claimed the figures illustrated the “industrial scale” of retail crime now facing businesses and the increasingly important role of technology in tackling 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."
Fisher added that speed was now one of the most critical factors in modern retail crime prevention.
“When an alert is delivered in seconds rather than minutes, it gives staff time to prepare, de-escalate or deploy appropriate measures. That can be the difference between prevention or a potentially dangerous incident," he said
"With violent and abusive behaviour and offenders with weapons becoming increasingly commonplace in a retail crime situation, fast advance warning is no longer just a key benefit – it is absolutely vital. This is about preventing crime where possible, not responding after harm is done.”
During 2025, Facewatch observed three new milestones in offender activity in UK retail stores as measured by the number of alerts it sent:
- In July, the volume of alerts sent in one week exceeded 10,000 for the first time, with 43,602 recorded across the entire month;
- In December, the number of alerts sent in one week hit a new record, with 14,885 sent over the seven days up to Christmas Eve;
- December's total alerts were 54,312, a new monthly record.
Facewatch’s alerting system operates across a network of retail locations nationwide, enabling information on known offenders to be shared securely, proportionally and lawfully between retailers that subscribe to the system.
The platform is increasingly used by retailers facing persistent theft, abuse of staff and organised shoplifting gangs targeting multiple stores.
The sharp increase in alerts in 2025 comes amid sustained warnings from the retail sector that crime is rising faster than enforcement can respond, with many businesses reporting repeat offenders returning to the same stores multiple times a week.
Facewatch's 2025 offender activity figures come at a time when it has been reported that "shoplifters" have a 98 per cent chance of avoiding a prison sentence. According to the Daily Telegraph, referencing Home Office data, fewer than 12,000 convicted shoplifters were jailed in the year to June 2025, meaning those investigated had just a 2.2 per cent chance of imprisonment.
Fisher said the data demonstrated why retailers were investing in preventative technology rather than relying solely on post-incident crime reporting and the criminal justice system.
“Retail crime has become faster, more organised and more brazen,” he said. “Retailers need tools that move at the same pace. Real-time alerts are now a core part of that response."