Thames Valley Police has begun putting two live facial recognition (LFR) vans into use, beginning on Cornmarket Street in Oxford city centre.
The vans, which first made their appearance on 22 December, are designed to help police to quickly locate people of interest, arrest outstanding suspects and safeguard high-risk missing people, the force said.
In August, the Home Office announced funding for 10 LFR vans, building on successes in London, where it said the technology had aided in 580 arrests in 12 months, including 52 registered sex offenders who had breached their conditions.
‘Frequent’ deployment
The government funding included joint units for Hampshire and Thames Valley.
Thames Valley Police’s deployment followed the first deployment by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary over the weekend of 20 December.
Thames Valley said it plans to use the technology across the area “frequently”.
Upon each deployment, officers will use a bespoke watchlist including people wanted on warrants and evading court proceedings.
Only the people on the list can be matched, with scans of people who do not match being deleted within seconds, and not stored, according to police.
‘Public safety’
DCS Craig Kirby, head of crime and intelligence for the force, said the technology would help give police “the very best opportunity to keep the public safe, protect vulnerable people and bring offenders to justice”.
Live facial recognition technology has been criticised as overly intrusive, raising the possibility of false matches and having a history of racial bias.
Research in 2019 suggested the technology used by police incorrectly identified “suspects” 81 percent of the time.
