Facewatch, the UK’s leading provider of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology to retailers, is set to extend its crime prevention reach to the UK pharmacy industry, the company has announced.
The move comes against a backdrop of mounting concern in the industry about rising crime, with the National Pharmacy Association warning of increasing incidents of theft, aggression and threats towards frontline pharmacy teams.
The company is preparing to unveil Facewatch PharmacyProtect, which is designed to address the unique operational pressures faced by pharmacies as they support frontline healthcare services while managing and dispensing controlled medicines.
In March this year, commenting on the ‘alarming’ rise in abuse faced by pharmacy staff, the National Pharmacy Association called the response by police and the NHS “often inadequate,” adding that the accessible position of pharmacies on the high street left them more exposed than other healthcare settings.
Facewatch PharmacyProtect will make its public debut at The Pharmacy Show 2026 at Birmingham’s NEC in October, where pharmacy owners, operators and industry buyers being invited to see a live demonstration of the system in action.
The demonstration will show how alerts about known offenders are triggered, how staff are instantly notified, and how the technology operates lawfully within UK data protection legislation.
Facewatch says it believes the pharmacy sector faces a distinct set of crime risks that set it apart from general retail, including targeted theft of prescription and over-the-counter medicines, increasing repeat offending by organised crime networks, and a pattern of confrontation and abuse directed at staff who are often working in high-footfall environments with limited security infrastructure.
Nick Fisher, CEO, Facewatch, said: “Community pharmacies are on the frontline of both healthcare delivery and retail crime, particularly the rise in organised crime, which we have seen rise sharply in recent years in the wider retail sector.
“What we are bringing to the pharmacy sector is not a new; it is a proven system that is already helping retailers across the UK identify repeat offenders, prevent crime and protect staff before incidents escalate.
“We want to work with the sector to better understand its specific needs, and offering open access to a demonstration of how the technology works is a vital part of that process.”
Facewatch operates as a Data Controller under UK GDPR and provides live facial recognition technology to a growing number of retailers across the UK, alerting store teams instantly when individuals previously involved in criminal behaviour enter a protected store.
The company’s technology, used by more than 125 retailers operating thousands of stores across the UK, has helped deter repeat offending by up to 70% while improving staff safety and morale at a time when there are 1,600 incidents of abuse and violence against shop workers every day, according the British Retail Consortium.
In 2025 alone, the system generated more than 500,000 real-time alerts of known offenders, with each alert representing a crime deterred or a member of shop staff sparred from abuse or worse.
Retail clients include national chains and independent retailers, including Budgens, Frasers Group, Flannels, Home Bargains, Sainsbury’s, Sports Direct, and – as retail crime increasingly spreads from more traditional targets – garden centres and charity shops.
Facewatch says PharmacyProtect will be developed in close consultation with pharmacy operators rather than applied as an off-the-shelf retail solution, and that it is actively seeking to engage pharmacy groups, independent operators and sector trade bodies ahead of the October launch.
The company is in the process of writing to pharmacy operators and owners to invite them to meet its team at the Pharmacy Show, however, anyone wishing to receive information sooner, or to register interest in seeing the demonstration, can contact the team via: enquiries@facewatch.co.uk
