Thames Valley Police have deployed two new reside facial recognition vans within the metropolis of Oxford as early use of the controversial expertise kicks off.
Used to match particular person’s faces towards a police database, reside facial recognition expertise has been positioned by the House Workplace as a strong software to catch needed criminals and even contribute to immigration enforcement.
In August, the House Workplace introduced new funding for a fleet of reside facial recognition police vans. The federal government stated these autos will solely be deployed when there’s particular intelligence and will likely be topic to “strict guidelines”.
Police forces together with the Metropolitan Police and South Wales have already been working with reside facial recognition tools.
The rollout has been celebrated by the influential Tony Blair Institute for World Change, a assume tank based by the previous prime minister that described the transfer as a “no-brainer” in tackling crime.
Civil liberty teams have, nevertheless, warned towards each the potential intrusiveness of the expertise and the precedent of racial bias in current facial recognition expertise.
The Info Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) stated this month that it was “disenchanted” with the House Workplace for failing to tell it about historic bias related with the expertise.
Learn extra: How can we deal with public issues over facial recognition?
