Workers at a US retail giant have started wearing body cameras in response to increasing concerns about aggressive and violent customers and theft.

Some Walmart stores reportedly have signs at entry points stating “body-worn cameras in-use”. And according to CNBC, at store in Denton, Texas – about 64km from Dallas – “an associate checking receipts was seen wearing a yellow-and-black body camera earlier this month”.

[In the Facebook photo at top, a man allegedly responds badly to being asked to wear a mask at a Canadian Walmart store.]

In a document titled “Providing great customer service while creating a safer environment”, Walmart staff are instructed on how to use the devices, according to a photo of the document posted on an online forum for Walmart employees and customers, per CNBC.

“It instructs employees to ‘record an event if an interaction with a customer is escalating’ and to not wear the devices in employee break areas and bathrooms. 

“After an incident occurs, staffers are told, they are to discuss it with another team member, who can help them log the event in the ‘ethics and compliance app’, according to the document.” 

A Walmart spokesperson told CNBC: “While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry,” .

“This is a pilot we are testing in one market, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions.”

Last month ChannelNews reported on hardware chain Bunnings defending its use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the wake of Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind finding the company breached the privacy of a large number of Australians.

The company released a video that showed violent attacks at its stores in an attempt to explain why it used FRT.

Bunnings also told 9news.com.au that its workers use body cameras to handle threatening situations.