Police are to deploy live facial recognition for the first time in the city centre of Norwich, amid government plans to expand use of the technology.
Cameras will be deployed from a marked van in a demarcated area in the city centre on Sunday, matching scanned faces to a watch list of people wanted by the police or noted as missing.
Scanned faces who do not match the list will be immediately deleted, police said.
‘Successful’
“We have seen how successful the technology has been in other forces around the country and are looking forward to replicating the results in Norfolk,” said Inspector Toby Gosden.
“Our officers will not be monitoring the daily business of the local community but instead working to secure justice for victims of crime and finding dangerous people on our streets.”
He said police would be “open and honest” about how and when the technology would be used.
Police will be able to take action if a person on the watch list is recognised.
Expansion plans
The government said in January it would increase the number of live facial recognition vans from 10 to 50 as part of policing reforms.
Campaign group Big Brother Watch said the scans were “intrusive”.
“Police use of live facial recognition cameras around the country has resulted in legal challenges, misidentifications and hundreds of officer hours spent staring at screens rather than front-line policing work,” said the group’s senior legal and policy officer Jasleen Chaggar.
“Norfolk Constabulary should abandon its plans to deploy this intrusive technology, more suited to authoritarian regimes than a democracy, especially while there is still no clear law governing its use,” she said.
