Met Police to begin using facial recognition cameras in London
The Metropolitan Police has announced that it will use live facial recognition cameras operationally in London for the first time.
Use of the cameras will be intelligence-led, the Met said, with a bespoke watch list of suspects — predominantly those wanted for serious and violent offences — drawn up for each deployment.
The cameras are due to be put into action in London within a month. The force said it would consult with communities before installing the cameras.
The Met said they would be focused on a “small, targeted area” to scan passersby and would be clearly signposted, with officers handing out leaflets to members of the public nearby.
Assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the use of live facial recognition technology was “vital in assisting us in bearing down on violence”.
“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,” he added.
“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 Met’s decision to bring the technology into operational use follows earlier pilot schemes in the capital, as well as deployments by South Wales Police.
In London, the cameras have been trialed in areas including Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre.
Ephgrave said “similar technology” to that being introduced by the Met “is already widely used across the UK, in the private sector”.
The developers of the King’s Cross estate have previously defended their use of facial recognition amid concerns about the privacy and personal data of those visiting the area.
Argent, which runs the 67-acre site, has said it no longer uses the technology and insisted it has no plans to reinstate it.
Silkie Carlo, director of privacy campaigning group Big Brother Watch, said the Met’s announcement “represents an enormous expansion of the surveillance state and a serious threat to civil liberties in the UK.”
“This is a breath-taking assault on our rights and we will challenge it, including by urgently considering next steps in our ongoing legal claim against the Met and the home secretary,” he added.
“This move instantly stains the new government’s human rights record and we urge an immediate reconsideration.”