Bodycams worn by Toronto FreshCo cashiers raise questions about safety and privacy

Some grocery stores owned by Sobeys I nc. are the latest T oronto stores to test body-worn cameras.

In a statement, the retailer confirmed it's piloting the project after the bodycams were spotted on FreshCo cashiers in a store located at Sherbourne and Isabella streets.

The cameras are being used to combat harassment and assault directed toward employees and to prevent shoplifting and other crimes, Sobeys spokesperson Caitlin Gray said.

But James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said he thinks they could have the opposite effect.

“I think it makes any employee … more vulnerable rather than safer because potential thieves may see the bodycam and just want to grab it off them,” he told CBC Toronto.

James Turk, director of the Centre