Privately hired security guards are only empowered to apprehend suspects with minimal force in Hong Kong, experts have warned after a customer was manhandled and wrongly accused of shoplifting in a case that has sparked public debate.
Shops should also find a balance between the efficiency of self-service checkout machines and security risks to reap the benefits of technology while avoiding legal liability when preventing theft, a lawyer and an IT expert said.
“[Security enforcement] has to be done in a precise manner, instead of just relying on people,” Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said on Friday.
Mannings issued a statement on Wednesday saying the guards had been fired and that it had axed its contract with the security firm that had supplied the pair.
