London Metropolitan Police Service to begin operational use of LFR technology
Despite of many critics and concerns for adoption of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology, the London Metropolitan Police Service has announced it will begin the operational use of the technology.'
The technology is under criticism for poor performance when identifying individuals. Critics have also suggested this should be considered as a violation of privacy rights afforded to individuals in democratic societies. Despite all these, the London police force seem to think it has all the bases covered.
“This is an important development for the Met and one which is vital in assisting us in bearing down on violence,” said Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave. “As a modern police force, I believe that we have a duty to use new technologies to keep people safe in London.”
“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.”
This initiative will be started in various parts of London. The Metropolitan Police Service of London believes that the technology will help it in locating the most serious offenders. The primary focus will be on knife and violent crime. It is unclear whether these deployments will be in permanently at a location, or the officers will be free to move around to other parts of the city.
As individuals pass the relevant cameras, facials maps will be compared to ‘watchlists’ created for specific areas. Should a match be confirmed, the officer will be prompted (not ordered) to approach the individual.
The London Metropolitan Police Force has said it will delete images which are not matched to individuals on record, though considering police databases have more than 20 million records, this leaves wiggle room. If an arrest is made, the data will be kept for 31 days. Although this is a concession by the Met, Human rights organisations and privacy advocacy groups have continued to suggest such technologies are an intrusion, over-stepping the privileges afforded to the police and eroding the concept of privacy.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.