Major retail stores have started supplying their employees with body cameras in an effort to prevent the rising rates of theft from their stores.

TJX, the parent company for TJ Maxx and Marshalls (TK Maxx in Australia), will be using body cameras attached to employees as a deterrent for thieves. The company claims these will not only deter the shoplifters but also provide enhanced safety for customers and employees.

Chains like this have started using Axon Body Workforce cameras, which have been marketed towards retail and healthcare.

Axon has said the new camera comes with real-time integration with the company’s operations and evidence management technology.

CEO and founder of Axon, Rick Smith said, “Public safety is about just that — people feeling and being safe in public, including while at work. That’s why Axon Body Workforce is so critical to our mission to protect life. It marks a new chapter in body-worn cameras, built to address the workplace violence affecting frontline workers.”

Response to this new strategy has been mixed. According to CNN, an anonymous employee of TJ Maxx revealed the role of the unarmed security wearing the camera “was to just stand there with the tactical vest labelled ‘security,’ and the camera mounted on the vest…It feels like the implementation of this program with the cameras isn’t meant to achieve anything, but rather just something the company can point to.”

The former chief of the Dallas Police Department in Texas, Renee Hall said, “The new Axon Body Workforce body-worn camera is not only useful for promoting frontline workers’ safety but also aids law enforcement agencies responding to the recent rise in violence in healthcare, retail, and other commercial settings by providing easily accessible digital evidence.”