Whether photos of trespassed shoplifters should be displayed has businesses divided with one retailer saying "if they want privacy they shouldn't do silly things".
Charanjit Dhillon, who owns Bottle-O liquor stores in Rotorua and Tauranga and posted shoplifting videos on social media, said it was a deterrent and "100 percent the best solution" to shoplifting.
He said his shoplifting numbers dropped dramatically after he started posting CCTV videos on social media.
Once a video was posted, he said within a day someone had told them who it was and they could pass the information on to police.
He said his stores had not been subject to shoplifters since and he believed it was because they were worried about friends and families seeing the videos online.
Doug Jarvis, owner of a Mount Maunganui butchery was left "devastated" by multiple burglaries over the past three months, so much so that he posted video footage of the alleged burglars' antics on Facebook. But he said he wouldn't put photos up in-store.
"I tried to name and shame them on Facebook but I wouldn't have [photos of] them in the shop, it's not quite right.
"The ones who [burgled] recently were so covered up, they knew what they were doing and they don't come back. But they know I have cameras so they don't expose themselves."
Jarvis did not feel there was anything shop owners could legally do when someone was shoplifting and believed sharing it on Facebook gave him back some power.
"You can't talk to them, you can't stop them, you can't grab them. They know they can get away with it and that is the problem.
"I would actually have photos of them in my shop for the staff, so they would recognise them and keep an eye on them."
Charanjit Dhillon, who owns Bottle-O liquor stores, believes shaming shoplifters is the best option. Photo / File
Acting director of the New Zealand Police's evidence-based policing centre Simon Williams said while it was not illegal for businesses to display security-camera photos and post them on social media, police advised against doing so.
He said businesses had to be "absolutely sure" the person in the photo was or had been shoplifting otherwise they could run into trouble in terms of privacy breaches and defamation.
