Call me cynical, but I don't know that this is really to increase employee safety so much as to try and reduce employee shoplifting. I have no evidence of this, just a gut feeling.
As long as the cameras are for security and loss prevention, I think it's probably a good thing. Once they make random the person stocking shelves or working at the register wear cameras throughout their shift I'm sure the footage will be used against employees for not working hard enough, or for complaining about their job/management or for whispering the word "union" too loudly.
Disagreed, given that the bodtcams require you to press a button down for 5 seconds before they start recording. Given that fact, it clearly seems like a deterrent (what customer will know this detail? They'll assume they're always on)
That would require the device to be constantly recording (or even streaming). Most body cams don't work on that principle - they write to a buffer and don't save the recording until you've hit the button. Once you hit the button, it records.
