Live facial recognition technology piloted by Hampshire Police to catch the county’s most wanted criminals
Live facial recognition technology is being piloted by Hampshire Police for the first time to help officers find the county’s most wanted criminals attempting to escape justice.
Yesterday (Tuesday, September 10) vans positioned in Portsmouth at four locations - Cosham High Street, Commercial Road, Guildhall Square and in Palmerston Road - scanned more than 35,000 faces and then used technology to help the police search for high risk and priority offences. This includes individuals wanted on warrants and those evading court proceedings. The technology can also be used to help to find high risk missing people.
Images of people the police would like to speak to are added to a bespoke ‘watchlist’ that is unique to the operation. The technology creates a biometric facial template from faces seen in the live video footage of crowds passing a camera and compares against the biometric template of images in the list, which resulted in two arrests following the Portsmouth operation.
The biometric template of any image from the live video footage that does not cause an alert is automatically and immediately deleted. Watchlist images and their biometric templates are deleted within 24 hours after each day of the deployment, and officers have been on hand at the location of the vans to explain the new technology to members of the public.
See the video embedded with this story to find out more about how the technology works
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Bartolomeo said: “It is really important that police forces use every aspect of technology available to appropriately take criminals off the street and keep the public safe.
“Facial recognition can significantly help our officers by quickly scanning crowds to identify those on the watchlist, freeing up their time to focus on responding to emergencies, spending time patrolling within their communities and investigating crime.
“I’d like to reassure people that any alerts are verified by the operator and a police officer will conduct any enquiries with anyone who is matched. The officer will decide what action needs to be taken, in the same way that any other policing operation is conducted.
“Having access to technology alongside our traditional policing tactics means we are using everything at our disposal to keep the public safe, protect vulnerable people and bring offenders to justice.” Following its debut in Portsmouth yesterday, the vans have been sited in Southampton today, and then tomorrow will be in Basingstoke and Winchester. The technology for the operation is being provided by South Wales Police as part of a mutual aid arrangement.
For more information about the use of live facial recognition visit Live Facial Recognition Technology | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary