Need to Know
8 5 - 18 February 2020
What happened?
The Metropolitan Police has revealed
plans to use live facial-recognition
technology on London’s streets, despite
privacy concerns and criticism about
the accuracy of such systems.
The police force said the new system,
built by tech firm NEC, won’t be used
across all of London, but in specific
locations where police expect wanted
criminals to be. Rather than recording
images of everyone who passes by, the
system compares faces with a watchlist
of people wanted for serious crimes.
If the system finds a match, it will
“prompt” police that the individual may
be a suspect. It’s then up to the officers
on site to decide what to do. In areas
where facial-recognition is in use,
people will be notified by signs and by
officers handing out leaflets. Reports
suggest the system works best in good
light, and less well at night or in crowds.
“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,” said Assistant
Commissioner Nick Ephgrave (bit.ly/
metpolice494). “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.”
The rollout of the technology follows
a series of trials at sporting events and a
much criticised test at the Notting Hill
Carnival. Academics at the University of
Essex reviewed the Met’s trials of the
NEC technology, and found that only
eight of its 42 matches were correct.How will it affect you?
If you live in London, you may see a
facial-recognition zone near you. The
Met Police said it will warn the public
when the technology is in use, but why a
wanted criminal wouldn’t just turn and
walk away is less obvious.
The system doesn’t store images –
instead it takes a “faceprint” using
points of data from your face. If your
faceprint matches that of a wanted
person on the system, you can expect a
police officer to walk over for a chat. If
your face doesn’t match anyone on the
list, the Met claims your collected data
will be deleted within moments.
The Met says it will use the system
only after consulting with the local
community, but you can expect legal
challenges from rights activists and
privacy campaigners, who already have
lawsuits in progress. Live trials of facial
recognition are currently running in
South Wales, but this is the first time it’s
been used “operationally” rather than as
part of a test. When the South Wales
trial was challenged in court, the
judgement found in favour of the police,
so it’s not clear how successful activists
would be in London.Couldn’t you just cover your face as
you walk by? During a trial of the
technology last year, one man did just
that – and, after a kerfuffle with police,
was fined for a public order offence.What do we think?
It’s easy to understand why the police
want technology to help them on the
streets. The Met has been hit by cuts
amid terrorist attacks and a rise in
knife-crime. If facial recognition could
prevent a teenager losing their life to
violence or stop a terror incident, we
may be willing to trade some of our
privacy, especially if the system doesn’t
store our so-called “faceprints”.
But if the system is ineffective, it risks
intruding on our privacy for no benefit.
The Met claims the NEC system has a
70% accuracy rate, which isn’t very high
and suggests that plenty of innocent
people may be stopped by police for no
reason. Given that academics who
studied this system said the accuracy
rate is closer to 19%, it’s bewildering to
think that the Met believes it’s good
enough to be used for fighting crime.
MPs and the EU have called for a halt
on public facial recognition until laws
are in place to protect against bias and
privacy intrusion. We’re disappointed
that the Met is rolling out a flawed
system before we’ve had the debate.Police to roll out facial
recognition despite concerns
The Metropolitan Police will soon start
using live facial-recognition technology