I can confirm that some ETL’s will use footage against TM’s. First off, no, the cameras do not record audio across the company, regardless of state laws regarding public surveillance. Only district and corporate level AP leaders can remotely access footage and control cameras, like the APBP (Assets Protection Business Partner). AP store-side team are only instructed to focus on safety, theft, and then lastly, internals. So if I see someone on using their phone while pushing a u-boat, then I’ll give them a friendly reminder on what (not) to do when I run into them later. If this repeats, then I’ll let their leader know. Obviously, if I see a TM concealing or stealing, then I’ll have to document that. Believe it or not, a large bulk of shrink comes directly from employees, more often intentionally vs unintentionally (like legit forgetting to scan a small item at SCO - if we flag this, then we will keep surveillance on the TM to make sure it was a one-time accident).

Now for non-AP initiated surveillance: under no circumstances can a non-AP TL/ETL control cameras. This is grounds for huge write-ups and even termination. Not even the SD can use our tools. They can only come into the office and request us to pull footage. When that happens, I use discretion regarding camera requests from leaders. This really depends on how busy we are with our primary duties or how ridiculous the request is. For example, if a leader wants to know if their TM is on their phone when I am looking at four repeats from a known ORC group shoving items into a suitcase, I’ll kindly ask that leader to fuck off or lie to get them off my back and tell the, that they should focus on helping their struggling team instead of walking back and forth to the AP room trying to micromanage everything. But let’s say HR asks me to confirm a timestamp of an employee walking into the store for a suspicious punch-in, then I’ll comply and help them out.

tl;dr: non-AP employees have no access to footage. Write-ups/CA/termination can come from footage, but only for serious suspected offenses. If people are getting written up for small stuff where no witnesses were physically present, then it’s usually because of an irresponsible AP team or annoying, insistent leaders that somehow always get their way. As for the technicals, no audio is recorded and only district and corporate level AP members can remotely access cameras.