Why Is Facial Recognition Important? 3 Signs It's Too Big to Ignore Any Longer
The FBI has 640 million photos in its facial recognition database, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, released this month ahead of a congressional hearing on law enforcement, facial recognition, and government transparency. To think of it another way, 640 million is enough for two images for every single person in the United States.

Multiple experts examining surveillance and civil liberties tell Inverse that between the lack of oversight, the inaccuracy of aspects of facial recognition systems, and the way such programs are rapidly spreading, it’s clear that regulation has to happen, and soon.

1. These Systems Are Spreading Rapidly
2. Facial Recognition Systems Are Inaccurate
3. There Is a Lack of Government Oversight inverse.com

California could become first to ban facial recognition tech in police body cams
Law enforcement responds: 'It just doesn't make sense'
Some California lawmakers are supporting Assembly Bill 1215, the Body Camera Accountability Act, which would ban the use of facial recognition software in police body cams – a national first if it passes a Senate vote this summer and is signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

While acknowledging that the tech is still in its infancy, some police officials say a wholesale ban is premature.  “Facial recognition could be a valuable tool for us, helping identify felons or even abducted children,” says Detective Lou Turriaga, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents 10,000 officers.

“I understand trying to seek a balance between civil liberties and law enforcement, but a wholesale ban doesn’t help us protect anybody,” he says. “Why remove that tool from law enforcement? It just doesn’t make sense.” usatoday.com

Update: Dallas DA tweaks plan giving some petty thieves a pass — but will he win over police?
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot has tweaked the controversial theft policy he unveiled two months ago that prompted an uncharacteristically loud and negative response from local police chiefs. Creuzot told The Dallas Morning News his office now allows Police Departments to resubmit cases the chiefs believe were wrongly rejected. He acknowledged that prosecutors initially tossed cases that should have been accepted. "We've asked the chiefs to send those back," the DA said.

But the move has done little, if anything, to temper police criticism about a policy that Creuzot says will decriminalize poverty by not prosecuting petty thieves who steal baby formula, diapers and food for their families because they can't pay. Police chiefs say they're concerned about the quality of life in the communities and that prosecutors will give a pass to offenders who should be held accountable. dallasnews.com

#ShoppingWhileBlack:
Video Shows Store Owner Harassing, Calling Security on Black Boys for Talking Loud, Touching Merchandise
When a South Carolina store owner called security and threatened to notify police on a group of black men for talking too loud, putting their hands on his merchandise and—most egregiously—paying him no attention. The group in question was not a roving band of unruly thugs, but an HBCU professor on vacation with his scholar/athlete sons.

The group decided to go shopping at Myrtle Beach Mall and were patronizing Fun Wear Sports when they were approached by the owner of the store, Michael Means. The video shows the store owner yelling to the group, unprompted: “Nobody touch anything unless you wanna buy.”

Security allegedly told the group that they had to leave the store. Carraway said they stood outside and observed white customers entering the store, many of whom were much louder, but the owner issued no threats or warnings. theroot.com

No Charges Filed by Family Dollar Over Stolen Doll
Phoenix Mayor Apologizes After Police Draw Guns on Family
Over Report of Stolen Doll
The mayor of Phoenix apologized on Saturday after videos showed that police officers in the city who had been responding to a report of a shoplifting had drawn their weapons, shouted expletives, and threatened to shoot a man in the face in front of his young children.

The mayor, Kate Gallego, said in a statement that she was “sick” over what she had seen in the videos.

The episode has drawn widespread attention as police encounters with civilians have faced heightened scrutiny, which is increasingly augmented by videos captured by bystanders on cellphones or by officers’ body cameras.

No charges were filed in connection with the episode, which started at a Family Dollar store. What preceded the events is in dispute. Neither side could even agree on when it had happened: The notice of claim said it had been May 29, and the police officers said it had been May 27.

The Police Department said on Facebook that the episode had begun after a store manager had alerted an officer to a possible shoplifting occurrence and had said that those being sought were getting into a car. The department said officers had found the couple’s car a mile away from the store.

The department said Mr. Ames had admitted he had stolen a package of underwear that he had thrown out of the car window and had said that he was also driving with a suspended license.

The notice of claim said the couple had not realized until they were back at their car that their 4-year-old daughter had walked out of the store with a doll.

The mayor said she was calling for a community meeting on June 18 in which the police chief was expected to answer questions from the public. nytimes.com

What a Weekend at Target
Two Technical Glitches Cause POS Nightmares
On Saturday, “an internal technology issue” caused long lines at Target stores and customers wasted no time going on social media sites to post their unhappiness with the situation. The outage, which Target said was not the result of a security issue, took registers down in stores across the country for a couple of hours before being resolved.

Yesterday, due to a second technical glitch, Target’s stores were unable to process credit and debit card payments for about 90 minutes. This issue, Target reported, was set off by a problem at one of vendor NCR’s data centers. The chain said the issue was, once again, not security related.

A customer at a Target in Phoenix told The New York Times that people inconvenienced by the outage on Sunday were given $10 off their orders by the stores.  retailwire.com

Self-Checkout is Growing
Costco Going Back to Self-Checkout
Six years after announcing plans to get rid of many self-service checkouts, Costco is again testing them to help combat long waits at manned registers.

On its third-quarter conference call, Richard Galanti, Costco’s EVP and CFO, said about 125 self-service stations have been installed across Costco’s 536 U.S. stores. The warehouse club operator plans to extend that to 250 over the next several months.

Warehouse competitors, Sam’s Club and B.J.’s Wholesale Club, as well as Amazon.com, Kroger, Meijer, Macy’s and others now offer ways for shoppers to scan items and check out via their smartphones. Most require customers to checkout via an express lane. retailwire.com

US Payments Forum Provides Best Practices
In-store Contactless Acceptance in New Resource
The U.S. Payments Forum is helping issuers and merchants to improve the consumer experience at the POS with a new resource describing best practices for contactless acceptance.

The white paper, “Consumer Experience at the Contactless Point of Sale” can be downloaded at https://www.uspaymentsforum.org/consumer-experience-at-the-contactless-point-of-sale/. uspaymentsforum.org

China's New Wardrobing Trend Will Impact Sales & Returns
Why Wardrobe Sharing Platforms are Dangerous to Luxury Brands
Wardrobe sharing apps are the latest global hype, perfectly responding to the needs of the environmentally conscious, hyper-connected consumers. Replacing ownership with convenience and accessibility is not something invented by millennials but they are responsible for significant advancements in the market. Despite a robust appetite for P2P apps, some critics voiced concerns regarding the long-term impact on the luxury market.

The sharing model offers better pricing and higher accessibility. Owning a Birkin means paying a premium but renting it comes with a lower price tag. Despite its disruptive essence, the sharing model has the potential to harm the luxury sector. Consumers need to take in consideration the following developments:

1. The sharing economy is sabotaging craftsmanship and the artisan-made production. 2. Quality issues. 3. Consumers associate luxury with ownership, not with access. 4. Conspicuous consumption won’t disappear. 5. The death of shopping gratification. 6. Risk of counterfeit luxury goods. 7. Dumping a higher stock of merchandise on the market does not increase the perceived value of the brand. 8. Privacy concerns. jingdaily.com

May retail sales rebound
Furniture and home stores rose 0.1%, electronics sales 1.1%, general merchandise retailers 0.7%, and sporting goods and hobby stores 1.1%, the government said. But department stores fell 0.7% and apparel sales were flat, according to the report.

The release formed the basis for the National Retail Federation's own number crunching. The trade organization said that retail sales rose 0.5% in May seasonally adjusted from April and 3.2% unadjusted year over year, according to an emailed release. retaildive.com

The Way We Measure Retail Store Performance Needs To Change
With stores doing less of their historical functions and more of what they’re not being measured for, it’s important to ask ourselves how to evaluate store performance in light of the changed environment. There are three things that are going to be important for retail store metrics in the future:

1. The Catchment Area. Online sales in the immediate geographic area around a store are usually higher than in other places. The store acts as a billboard and awareness-builder for consumers. In those cases, the sales don’t show up as store revenue and that needs to change, sales allocable to a store should include both the sales inside the store and the online sales in the local area that the store affects.

2. BOPIS. The phenomenon of Buy-Online-Pickup-Instore is real and here to stay. It provides a level of convenience that lets consumers have what they want right away without waiting for shipping times and makes their store visits more efficient.

3. BORIS. Like BOPIS, Buy-Online-Return-Instore is a key convenience for consumers and needs to be measured. forbes.com

From The Mexican Bluff to The China Double Down
What a Roller Coaster for Retailers & It Impacts LP
‘Catastrophic,’ ‘Cataclysmic’: Trump’s Tariff Threat Has Retailers Sounding Alarm
Already battered by the e-commerce revolution, traditional retail stores are bracing for another blow — new tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports that the Trump administration is threatening to impose.

Retailers and analysts warn the impact will be disastrous for an industry already tormented by vacant storefronts and deserted malls. The reason: Unlike earlier tariffs that mostly targeted industrial and commercial products, the next round is aimed squarely at consumer goods like footwear, toys and apparel.

The government has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. President Trump has said he will decide on whether to impose duties on the remaining $300 billion in imports but hasn’t set a firm deadline.

The National Retail Federation estimates that China supplies 42 percent of all apparel, 73 percent of household appliances and 88 percent of toys sold in the United States.

In a letter last month, over 170 shoemakers and retailers called on Mr. Trump to halt the trade war with China, which supplies almost 70 percent of shoes sold in the United States.

Mr. Cohen said. “This is going to cause more stores to close and more people to lose their jobs,” he added.

By the end of 2019, announced closings could climb to 12,000 stores, Coresight estimated. nytimes.com

How Does My Work Tie Into Company Priorities?
Why Silos Don't Break Down So Easily
Workers like their routines, and don’t have much faith in their coworkers, according to a recent survey. If leaders want cross-functional activity, they’ll have to make the case for it—and nix the useless meetings.

CEOs are encouraged to bust silos so often you’d think half their job is driving bulldozers over grain farms. Employees must learn to work with different departments in cross-functional teams! Lack of institutional awareness throughout the org chart leads to inefficiencies and confusion!

All true, and that’s why the no-silo dream is a compelling one for executives. But there are a couple of problems with the dream: Your people probably like their silos, and they’re often not working in an environment where they can easily get out of them anyhow.

That's one of the conclusions to draw from The State of Work: 2018-2019 Edition, a recent study published by the enterprise technology firm Workfront.

The study shows a workplace that’s straining to get its regular tasks done and doesn’t have much of an appetite for cross-functional anything.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents say, “I never know what my company’s top priorities are and how my work ties into them.” That’s a lot of people showing up for work every day but not knowing why, beyond their daily tasks.

If you as an executive aren’t explaining what the strategic purpose of an effort is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that workers are loath to step out of their bubbles. associationsnow.com

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

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FCRA’s Seven-Year Reporting Window Begins with Charge, Not Dismissal

 

Last week's #1 article --

The Art of the Out-of-Office Reply
The first day of summer is days away, and if you have any upcoming vacation, it's time to brush up on crafting your out-of-office email. Whether you keep it simple, or you plan on injecting humor into your OOO, it's good to have a plan. The New York Times collected some exemplary replies, including one with the subject line "nope" and a message that read, "I'm not planning on reading any old emails when I get back." nytimes.com