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| Met Police to deploy facial recognition cameras | Met Police to deploy facial recognition cameras |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| The Metropolitan Police has announced it will use live facial recognition cameras operationally for the first time on London streets. | The Metropolitan Police has announced it will use live facial recognition cameras operationally for the first time on London streets. |
| The cameras will be in use for five to six hours at a time, with bespoke lists of suspects wanted for serious and violent crimes drawn up each time. | The cameras will be in use for five to six hours at a time, with bespoke lists of suspects wanted for serious and violent crimes drawn up each time. |
| Police say the cameras identified 70% of wanted suspects and only generated false alerts in one in 1,000 cases. | Police say the cameras identified 70% of wanted suspects and only generated false alerts in one in 1,000 cases. |
| It follows earlier pilots in London and deployments by South Wales police. | It follows earlier pilots in London and deployments by South Wales police. |
| The cameras are due to be put into action within a month but police say they will warn local communities and consult with them in advance. | The cameras are due to be put into action within a month but police say they will warn local communities and consult with them in advance. |
| Cameras will be clearly signposted, covering a "small, targeted area", and police officers will hand out leaflets about the facial recognition scanning, the Met said. | |
| Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the Met has "a duty" to use new technologies to keep people safe, adding that research showed the public supported the move. | Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the Met has "a duty" to use new technologies to keep people safe, adding that research showed the public supported the move. |
| "We all want to live and work in a city which is safe: the public rightly expect us to use widely available technology to stop criminals," he said. | "We all want to live and work in a city which is safe: the public rightly expect us to use widely available technology to stop criminals," he said. |
| "Equally I have to be sure that we have the right safeguards and transparency in place to ensure that we protect people's privacy and human rights. I believe our careful and considered deployment of live facial recognition strikes that balance." | "Equally I have to be sure that we have the right safeguards and transparency in place to ensure that we protect people's privacy and human rights. I believe our careful and considered deployment of live facial recognition strikes that balance." |
| Trials of the cameras have already taken place in locations such as Stratford's Westfield shopping centre and the West End of London. | |
| Mr Ephgrave said the system could also be used to find missing children or vulnerable adults. | |
| 'Threat to privacy' | |
| The Met said that the technology is "tried-and-tested" in the private sector, but previous uses of facial recognition have been controversial. | |
| Last year, the Met admitted it supplied images for a database carrying out facial recognition scans on a privately owned estate in King's Cross, after initially denying involvement. | |
| The Information Commissioner launched an investigation into the use of facial recognition by the estate's developer, Argent, saying that the technology is a "potential threat to privacy that should concern us all". The investigation continues. | |
| The ICO, which is the UK's data protection watchdog, said a broader inquiry into how police use live facial recognition technology found there was public support for its use. although it needed to be "appropriately governed, targeted and intelligence-led". | |
| The Met Police had given assurances that it is taking steps to reduce intrusion, but the government should introduce a legally binding code of practice, an ICO spokeswoman said. | |
| "This is an important new technology with potentially significant privacy implications for UK citizens," she said. |