UK Home Office to consult on what safeguards are needed for police using the cameras

Ten vans fitted with live facial recognition technology will be given to seven police forces across Britain. Photo / UK Home Office

Vans equipped with facial recognition cameras will be deployed across Britain to catch criminals, the Home Office has announced.

Ten vehicles equipped with live facial recognition (LFR) technology will be provided to police forces to find people wanted for serious crimes.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said that the technology would be used “in a targeted way” to identify sex offenders and other serious criminals.

The seven areas that will deploy the vans include Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Thames Valley.

Previously, just five forces in England, including the Metropolitan Police, and one in Wales had access to the technology.

The capital’s police force made 580 arrests using LFR for offences including rape, knife crime, and robbery.

Fifty-two sex offenders were also caught and arrested for breaching bail conditions.

Forces are told they must follow guidance on how the technology is used, including measuring faces from a live feed only against police watchlists.

The Home Office also announced that there will be a consultation on what safeguards and oversight are needed, with a view to creating a new legal framework for its use.

The LFR police vans have two CCTV cameras positioned on the roof at the front and back, and have a sign on the side to indicate that facial recognition is in use.

Lindsey Chiswick, the lead for facial recognition at the National Police Chief’s Council, said that the facial recognition “will be targeted, intelligence-led, within a set geographical location and for a defined period of time”.

LFR is one of three types of facial recognition used by police. Retrospective facial recognition is used after an incident, where images from CCTV or social media are used to compare to images of people taken on arrest.

Earlier this year, the Telegraph revealed that police had been told to use facial recognition searches in every investigation.

Officers are encouraged to obtain pictures of targets, including witnesses and victims, from social media, doorbell footage, and CCTV, and search them against the vast police national database.

A mobile app which allows officers to take a photograph of a person of interest and check their identity when they are unsure without arresting them is also in its early stages.

The Home Office has also said that every neighbourhood in England and Wales has a named, contactable police officer in place.

Cooper said: “Facial recognition will be used in a targeted way to identify sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes who the police have not been able to find.

“That’s why we’re funding 10 vans and also drawing up a new legal framework, so we’ve got proper safeguards and checks in place so that we can use the technology to go after the most dangerous criminals.”