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Speaker 1: Time to talk about a thing called Aura.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Aura is a surveillance network that retailers use and can

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Speaker 1: submit footage of shoplifting incidents to the police. So when

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Speaker 1: former Green MP god Is government was spoken to by

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Speaker 1: Pack and Save Security last year for suspected shoplifting, Pack

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Speaker 1: and Save did not talk to the police. They did

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Speaker 1: not make a complaint to the police, but they did

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Speaker 1: record the incident on the system called Aura. Police have

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Speaker 1: access to Ora apparently, and they have confirmed that's how

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Speaker 1: they found out about this latest incident with Gold's garment.

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Speaker 1: So Phil Thompson is the CEO of AURA and he

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Speaker 1: joins me right now, Hello, welcome to the program. Phil.

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Speaker 1: Thanks and did you name that after Harry Potter?

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Speaker 2: No old lesson words for light. So keeping everyone safe? Right?

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Speaker 1: So JK Rowling stole it from Latin. You've stole it

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Speaker 1: also from Latin and that is good. So what do

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Speaker 1: you guys actually do with this them?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really useful to understand and mischaracterized as surveillance,

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Speaker 2: but quite simply, we're our crime reporting platform. So retailers

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Speaker 2: are capturing information on crimes and attempted crimes that happen

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Speaker 2: in their stores and making that visible to their own

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Speaker 2: head office and also to police. So it's a good

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Speaker 2: chance for retailers to work closer with police run retail

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Speaker 2: crime because it's probably not as widely understood the problem itself,

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Speaker 2: but across the country we've got a serious retail crime problem.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's more than two million dollars every day

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Speaker 2: being stolen. We're all paying more for our goods because

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Speaker 2: of that. And actually there's a lot of violence associated

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Speaker 2: with that crime as well, So that of all those

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Speaker 2: retail crimes include some sort of threats of violence to people.

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Speaker 1: I'd hate to say this, mate, That doesn't surprise anybody

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Speaker 1: we know about this. So here's the question. How much

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Speaker 1: access do police have and can they look at everything

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Speaker 1: or any camera anytime any shop in New Zealand that

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Speaker 1: is using Aura.

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Speaker 2: No they can't, so I think, you know, we aren't cameras,

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Speaker 2: We're not a surveillance system. Quite simply, retailers choose to

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Speaker 2: make the crimes that they witness in their stores visible

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Speaker 2: to police and then it's up to police to determine

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Speaker 2: how they use it information to investigate further and solve

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Speaker 2: more crime. So it's a way for retail to provide information,

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Speaker 2: including evidence like video, to police more efficiently. So we're

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Speaker 2: just modernizing what's always happened, but rather than paper files

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Speaker 2: and USB stics, we're making it digital much faster for

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Speaker 2: both sides.

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Speaker 1: And I know you don't want to talk about this

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Speaker 1: case that we have at the moment because it's in

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Speaker 1: process and all that sort of thing. But after what

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Speaker 1: you just said, how come pack and Safe did to

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Speaker 1: make a complaint, but the police actually saw what happened.

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Speaker 2: So retailers generally provide visibility to crime events for the police,

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Speaker 2: and they often choose which ones they want to report

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Speaker 2: officially for further follow up, and often it comes down

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Speaker 2: to things like if it's a non repeat offender or

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Speaker 2: if it is someone who has high value. But often

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Speaker 2: it's almost like when you call Triple five right for

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Speaker 2: dangerous driving that you see on the road yourself. You're

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Speaker 2: not making an official, complete plase complaint, but you're providing

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Speaker 2: them with information of what you're seeing. It's how we

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Speaker 2: keep our community safe, and I think police having information

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Speaker 2: around crimes that occur in our community is a good

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Speaker 2: thing that that helps all of us, rather than that

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Speaker 2: being seen as a sinister thing.

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Speaker 1: I get that, and I see now how they were

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Speaker 1: notified about where to look on the tape to find out.

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Speaker 1: By the way, is the tape or no, of course

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Speaker 1: it's not a memory stick or something.

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Speaker 2: Well, no, it's purely I mean the retailers now upload

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Speaker 2: their own evidence for video footage, witness statements into the

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Speaker 2: cloud and it makes it easier for police to download

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Speaker 2: that footage and then use it if they need to.

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Speaker 1: Are there tecks and balances in place to prevent the

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Speaker 1: footage from being misused?

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Speaker 2: Yes, there are so. Retailers and police have their own

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Speaker 2: policies around what information is uploaded, how it's used. And

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Speaker 2: also we've built a lot of safeguards and privacy by

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Speaker 2: design into the platform itself, so it's a restricted access

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Speaker 2: and use of the platform and only certain things like

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Speaker 2: crimes and tympt of crimes are visible to police with

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Speaker 2: a net.

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Speaker 1: And is the footage ever deleted? How long does it

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Speaker 1: sit there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, retailers will keep information for as long as their

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Speaker 2: lawful purpose to doing so, and it is deleted when

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Speaker 2: it's no longer needed.

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Speaker 1: Very good. So how many retailers have signed up?

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Speaker 2: We work with probably most major retailers across New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: And we're actually operating in Australia, the US and the

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Speaker 2: UK as well. And when a retail crime is a

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Speaker 2: massive problem right across the world, and like I said earlier,

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Speaker 2: you know, we as as the consumer end up paying

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Speaker 2: more for our goods because of it, and also our

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Speaker 2: frontline workers are the targets of this violence and threats

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Speaker 2: in store.

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Speaker 1: It's very good. So if you're if you've gotten a

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Speaker 1: furious purpose, be warned you are being watched. Phil Thompson

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Speaker 1: from Aura, thank you so much for your time today.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to

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