Metropolitan Police to roll-out live facial recognition across London

Met plans to use live facial recognition at 'specific location' in London to 'help protect the vulnerable'

The Metropolitan Police is to roll-out live facial recognition technology at "specific locations" across London. The Met claims that it will be used to "help tackle serious crime, including serious violence, gun and knife crime, child sexual exploitation" and "help protect the vulnerable".

The technology behind the scheme will be provided by NEC, and will provide police officers with "an additional tool… to try to locate and arrest wanted people", the statement today from the Metropolitan Police added.

Assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave described it as "vital in assisting us in bearing down on violence. As a modern police force, I believe that we have a duty to use new technologies to keep people safe in London…

Each deployment will have a bespoke ‘watch list', made up of images of wanted individuals

"We are using a tried-and-tested technology, and have taken a considered and transparent approach in order to arrive at this point. Similar technology is already widely used across the UK, in the private sector. Ours has been trialled by our technology teams for use in an operational policing environment."

The Met will begin deploying live facial recognition at locations based on intelligence where serious offenders might be found.

The statement continued: "Each deployment will have a bespoke ‘watch list', made up of images of wanted individuals, predominantly those wanted for serious and violent offences.

"At a deployment, cameras will be focused on a small, targeted area to scan passers-by. The cameras will be clearly signposted and officers deployed to the operation will hand out leaflets about the activity. The technology, which is a standalone system, is not linked to any other imaging system, such as CCTV, body worn video or ANPR [automatic number plate recognition]."

However, the announcement has been met with an immediate response from pressure group Big Brother Watch which said the move "instantly stains the new government's human rights record" and vowed to challenge the decision in court.

Cameras will be focused on a small, targeted area to scan passers-by

In a statement today, Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "This decision represents an enormous expansion of the surveillance state and a serious threat to civil liberties in the UK.

"It flies in the face of the independent review showing the Met's use of facial recognition was likely unlawful, risked harming public rights and was 81 per cent inaccurate.

"This is a breath-taking assault on our rights and we will challenge it, including by urgently considering next steps in our ongoing legal claim against the Met and the Home Secretary."