Theft Database Query

xzanti

A close friend of mine was caught shoplifting about 20 years ago (she was a minor at the time). There was no conviction as the value of the item was very low (about a pound afaik). Since then she has worked several jobs in the same shopping centre and never had any problems. It seemed to have been all forgotten about.

She says she's not proud, she was young and stupid and never did it again.

Anyway, fast forward to today and she now finds herself being followed around in most shops that she goes into, not just the shopping centre where the offence occured. After a bit of googling she's discovered that there is a shared database of known offenders, and she's guessing her face is in there. She has adolescent children who are beginning to notice their mother being shadowed by security guards, and it is becoming increasingly upsetting for her.

Is there any way that she can have her name/face removed from this database at this stage?

She has absolutely no criminal record, the woman is possibly the most honest and hard working person I know.

It is really getting her down.

Thanks for any advice.

January

Husband is a security guard and he's never heard of any such thing ever.

xzanti

Is there not a face recognition system set up now? When a known offender enters a store they are notified?

January

No, definitely not.

Kimbot

xzanti wrote: »

Is there not a face recognition system set up now? When a known offender enters a store they are notified?

That could be all set up now but you think any business in ireland would fork out the money for suh a system tbh.

I dont think something from 20 years ago would still be following her around, maybe she looks similar to someone that was caught stealing. My advise would be for her to go to the Shopping security if they follow her again and ask them whats going on, if they dont tell her then onto the shopping centre management.

seamus

In Ireland? I doubt it. Any such system would be screaming out for someone to sue on several grounds.

If she was never convicted, then she has no record so there is no legal basis on which they could hold her information in any such database.

I would recommend that the next time it happens, she goes to a customer service desk, asks to speak to a manager and then asks that manager why she's being followed by security.

afatbollix

No such Database exists.

xzanti

Thanks guys, I'll let her know.

Gatling

Most shops and security staff would have details on known shoplifters ,
It's not an official database per say but the majority of shops and centers do have books ,
But is she been watched for a 1e offence 20 years ago no ,
Chances are she's been paranoid or attracting suspicion some how

Peregrinus

She was a minor 20 years ago, and now she's of an age to be the mother of adolescents?

If such a database did exist, and if it went back 20 years, it would contain thousands of images. And your friend thinks that shopping center security guards study thousand of images, and recognise her from one image in all those thousands, taken when she was a teenager?

Never mind the law, this is simply not credible on a practical level. Either your friend has an irrational anxiety disorder of some kind, or there is some other fact at work here that is causing security guards to follow her around.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Esel

Maybe she has a doppelganger who is a known shoplifter?

xzanti

Peregrinus wrote: »

She was a minor 20 years ago, and now she's of an age to be the mother of adolescents?

She was 12 when it happened. Had her first child at 21. She's now 32. What's not adding up for you?

Peregrinus

xzanti wrote: »

She was 12 when it happened. Had her first child at 21. She's now 32. What's not adding up for you?

What's not adding up is she thinks that someone who saw a photograph of her taken when she was 12, included in a database of thousands of photographs, recognises the 32-year old her on sight from his recollection of seeing that photograph when he reviewed the database.

Anybody who has that kind of recall and pattern-recognition capacity can get a better job than being a security guard at a shopping centre.

xzanti

Peregrinus wrote: »

What's not adding up is she thinks that someone who saw a photograph of her taken when she was 12, included in a database of thousands of photographs, recognises the 32-year old her on sight from his recollection of seeing that photograph when he reviewed the database.

Anybody who has that kind of recall and pattern-recognition capacity can get a better job than being a security guard at a shopping centre.

That wasn't the question you asked in the quote.

Anyway, thanks for the responses folks. I shall tell her that she's just nuts

BrokenArrows

xzanti wrote: »

A close friend of mine was caught shoplifting about 20 years ago (she was a minor at the time). There was no conviction as the value of the item was very low (about a pound afaik). Since then she has worked several jobs in the same shopping centre and never had any problems. It seemed to have been all forgotten about.

She says she's not proud, she was young and stupid and never did it again.

Anyway, fast forward to today and she now finds herself being followed around in most shops that she goes into, not just the shopping centre where the offence occured. After a bit of googling she's discovered that there is a shared database of known offenders, and she's guessing her face is in there. She has adolescent children who are beginning to notice their mother being shadowed by security guards, and it is becoming increasingly upsetting for her.

Is there any way that she can have her name/face removed from this database at this stage?

She has absolutely no criminal record, the woman is possibly the most honest and hard working person I know.

It is really getting her down.

Thanks for any advice.

I think your friend is just being paranoid.

There is no database containing the name and faces of shoplifters. If there was no conviction then it simply never happened.

Even if such a fictional database did exist it would only contain a picture of your friend as a child which would be massively illegal and she would be unrecognizable today.

I think your friend is probably acting nervous which likely makes her stand out to the security guards and makes them more likely to follow her. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Your friend has nothing to worry about and the security guards are just doing their job and following random people.

Peregrinus

xzanti wrote: »

That wasn't the question you asked in the quote.

The question in the quote was simply me seeking to establish that I had correctly understood the facts of the situation.

There's nothing incredible about the facts, and my question wasn't intended to suggest that there was. But, on those facts, it is not really believable that she would now be identified by security guards as a likely shoplifter.

NUTLEY BOY

Just a view.

If there were no criminal proceedings (or even no caution if such a thing existed back then) her criminal record is "clean" as far as that matter of 20 years ago is concerned. Therefore, she should not be worrying on that count.

The other matter that arises is whether or not her name is on any database. For argument, even if she thought that her name was on a database the process of trying to have it removed would first involve her ascertaining if she was on it before getting in to deeper issues of data protection et al. Ironically, that exercise would probably be counter-productive as it would draw attention to her where such attention is probably not warranted especially if she is not on any list at all !

I suspect that the lady in question is experiencing hypervigilance given her experience of the other side of shop security. Take a walk through the main shopping streets of Dublin and you will both observe and hear security staff providing running commentaries to each other on the street about anyone they know to be an experienced practitioner of purloining or even slightly suspicious because they fit a "profile".

P.S. If she appeared that suspicious to security staff she would probably have been barred by now from at least one shop. That seems not to have happened so shop away without guilt or discomfort.