£500k for Met to expand facial recognition as minister hails its success in crime-fighting

THE Met was today given a new cash handout from the Government to expand its use of live facial recognition as the policing minister disclosed that the technology had already trapped an alleged double rapist and around 100 other suspects in one London borough.

Chris Philp said the extra £547,000 being given to Scotland Yard would help it catch more wanted criminals, and formed part of a wider move to use technology in crime detection.

He said other changes on the horizon included the introduction of hand-held knife detection technology, which can be used by police to spot knife carriers from several feet away, as well as the use of drones and artificial intelligence.

But Mr Philp said the first step would be a further expansion of live facial recognition technology, which has already been used by the Met to identify wanted suspects at locations ranging from Croydon and Camden to Premier League football matches.

“In Croydon, in the last three or four months alone, over 100 people have been arrested who would not otherwise have been caught including for knife-related offences,” the minister said during a round of media appearances including Sky News and GB News.

“There was somebody wanted for a double rape, the first of which occurred in 2017. They had not been caught for seven years until the man walked past the camera and got identified.

“That has not gone to court yet, but that is someone wanted for a double rape who would not have been caught.”

He added: “Those are 100 people, often dangerous criminals [who] would not have been arrested otherwise and they now have been. It’s going to keep the public... safer.”

Critics have claimed that the technology can result in “false positives” and result in disproportionality.

But the Met has insisted that instead it is highly accurate and that in an additional safeguard each deployment involves the use of a specially prepared watch list of suspects which is deleted immediately afterwards.

Mr Philp said he was also convinced that the facial recognition cameras operated fairly and added: “All that has to happen to do that is you and me get scanned and our picture then gets immediately and automatically deleted.” He rejected accusations that the cameras were part of a “Big Brother” state.

Mr Philp said he was also optimistic about the potential for knife detection devices. He said he had this week been shown a US version of the technology which allowed officers “to scan people at a distance who are carrying knives”.

The minister, who is the MP for Croydon South, added: “That could really transform the police’s ability to take knives off the street.”

These hand-held detection devices could really transform the police’s ability to take knives off the street

FACIAL recognition technology is already changing the nature of policing in the capital. To that end, the Met has been granted an additional £500,000 to fund further live facial recognition operations against knife and other offences, as part of a £4 million Home Office investment that will also finance the development of “new technologies which can detect knives carried from a distance and hand-held or body-worn systems which can be operated by individual officers”.

There have been significant successes — use of the cameras in Croydon has led to the arrest of people wanted for firearms and drugs offences and most notably, a suspected double rapist, according to policing minister Chris Philp.

Yet the technology, which scans people’s faces, has led to accusations that they are part of a “Big Brother” state. There are also important concerns about accuracy and racial bias. There needs to be constant scrutiny to ensure that such problems do not arise, given it is not difficult to imagine how a database of faces could be misused both now and in the future.

What is unarguable is that violent crime is an increasing problem in our city. Knife and gun crime both spiked by 20 per cent last year. Only yesterday evening, a woman in her thirties was shot in north-east London. According to an eyewitness, she was an innocent bystander caught in the middle of a shooting between two groups.

From the intelligence-led use of stop-and-search to new technologies, the challenge is to find common ground that can make our streets safe while at the same time protecting the liberties we hold dear.