The Metropolitan Police said the stand-alone cameras would scan passers-by in specific areas of the city for 5 to 6 hours at a time, searching for people suspected of serious and violent crimes, according to the Financial Times.
The Met did not say how many cameras would be deployed or how many areas would be scanned. They did say they will warn local communities and consult with them in advance of deployment of the controversial technology, reports the BBC.
The Met is saying the technology identified 70 percent of suspects accurately, however, in a damning independent review they commissioned last year, the technology was found to be only accurate 19 percent of the time. Privacy advocates are saying the use of facial recognition is a “serious threat to civil liberties.”
Amnesty International researcher Anna Bacciarelli said that London’s decision to use real-time facial recognition technology defies the warnings from rights groups, lawmakers and independent experts, reports CTV News Canada.
#WATCH | this video which highlights how Live Facial Recognition technology will be used to help us bear down on serious violence and keep people safe in #London
More info MJaMEB3uAD
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 24, 2020
“Facial recognition technology poses a huge threat to human rights, including the rights to privacy, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” Bacciarelli said.
The Met argues that the system, which runs on technology from Japan’s NEC, looks into crowds of people looking only for those who are on “watch lists” of people wanted for serious and violent offenses, including gun and knife crimes and child sexual exploitation.
“As a modern police force, I believe that we have a duty to use new technologies to keep people safe in London,” Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said in a statement.
The British have long been used to being under surveillance by video cameras. The cameras have been used in public spaces for decades by security forces due to terror threats. However, real-time monitoring will be a bit different and may raise a lot of questions about privacy.
London is the sixth most monitored city in the world, with nearly 628,000 surveillance cameras, according to a report by Comparitech.
