Met to expand use of live facial recognition into central London by Christmas | Facial recognition
The Metropolitan Police will expand the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology first to London’s West End by Christmas and then to a further six areas next year.
The new cameras will be fixed and can be attached to street furniture such as street lamps. Critics said the new plans meant tens of thousands of people would be forced into “digital policing”.
LFR scans the faces of people passing through its camera’s lens and then compares it to a watch list of wanted suspects.
The Met is trialling the technology and using vans deployed for short periods in some areas.
He also used LFR via a static camera in Croydon, south London, in an experiment that Britain’s major power says was successful.
Towards the end of this year, new static cameras will be installed in London’s West End and Soho, areas with some of the highest crime rates in the British capital.
The Met said the cameras would be relocated as officers identified crime trends.
The company plans to install static LFR cameras in six more regions in 2027 and hopes local councils will contribute to the cost.
The Met insists any arrest decision is made by a human following an alert on the LFR system.
Live facial recognition is controversial because it mostly spies the faces of innocents passing in front of the system’s cameras. Moreover, the algorithm used to reinforce this can discriminate against black people.
Police and the government, which supports expanded use, say civil rights issues are minimal, if any. The Met has reduced the sensitivity of its algorithm, which it says nearly eliminates bias. Ministers and the police believe the LFR’s crime-fighting potential is huge, while also freeing up officers’ time in a time of financial stress.
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “Facial recognition is one of the most revolutionary technological advances in policing in recent years. Public confidence in it is clear, with around 80% of Londoners supporting its use. This support reflects a simple truth: it works.”
Figures on the use of static cameras in Croydon are used by the Met to show how effective the LFR is.
Police said 173 people were arrested during a six-month pilot with cameras installed at both ends of Croydon’s high street.
The force said that out of 470,000 faces scanned, only one person was mistakenly identified by the LFR and was allowed to leave but was not arrested.
Rowley said: “We’re looking to build on our success by rolling out this feature to the West End and Soho by December. The use of static cameras will help us continue to reduce crime in high footfall areas of central London.”
Silkie Carlo from Big Brother Watch said: “The expansion of the use of live facial recognition to include static cameras is a worrying escalation of intrusive technology that is already scanning the faces of millions of innocent Londoners.
“Forcing people to enter digital policing in the busiest and most popular parts of the capital is an affront to the idea that you shouldn’t have to identify yourself to the police unless you’ve done nothing wrong. You should now pay with your privacy to watch a game.”
The Met said the use of LFR cameras would be announced in advance. It was stated that faces that did not match the suspect were deleted from the system almost immediately.
