Government expands police use of facial recognition vans

The UK government has announced that it will expand the use of live facial recognition vans across seven police forces in England. These vans, already seen in London, south Wales, and Essex, are equipped with cameras that scan the faces of people passing by and compare them to a list of suspects wanted for serious crimes such as sexual offences, violent assaults, and homicides. The Home Office says that in London alone, the technology has helped police make 580 arrests in the past year, including 52 registered sex offenders who broke the rules of their release.

The new plan will double the number of facial recognition vans, with ten new vehicles shared among Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley, and Hampshire police forces. The technology works by measuring facial features like the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline, then matching these measurements to faces on a police watchlist. Each van will have a trained officer to check the matches found by the system. The government is also asking the public for their opinions on what rules and safeguards should be put in place to make sure the technology is used fairly and that people can trust it.

However, not everyone is happy about the expansion. Campaign group Big Brother Watch has called the move 'alarming' and is taking legal action against the Metropolitan Police's use of facial recognition. They argue that there are not enough laws to control how this technology is used and worry about privacy and the risk of false matches. Baroness Chakrabarti, a member of the House of Lords, says the technology is 'incredibly intrusive' and could lead to a 'total surveillance society. ' She welcomes the government's consultation but says the technology has been used without proper laws so far. The Home Office says the vans will be clearly marked so people know when facial recognition is being used, and that data will only be kept for a short time. They also say the system has been tested to make sure it does not show bias based on age, gender, or ethnicity. Supporters of the technology, like Ryan Wain from the Tony Blair Institute, say it is a smart way to catch dangerous criminals in crowds. The government has also promised that every neighborhood in England and Wales will have a named police officer people can contact, with a commitment to respond to questions within 72 hours. These changes are meant to help police catch criminals while also protecting people's rights and privacy.