The decision is a major development in the use of a
technology that has set off a worldwide debate about the balance between security and
privacy. Police departments contend that the software gives them a way to catch
criminals who may otherwise avoid detection. Critics say the technology is an
invasion of privacy, has spotty accuracy and is being introduced without
adequate public discussion.
Britain has been at the forefront of the debate. In a country with a history of terrorist attacks, police surveillance has
traditionally been more accepted than in other Western countries. Closed
circuit television cameras line the streets.
The technology London will deploy goes beyond many of the
facial recognition systems used elsewhere, which match a photo against a
database to identify a person. The new tools use software that can immediately
identify people on a police watch list as soon as they are filmed on a video
camera.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the technology would help
quickly identify and apprehend suspects and help “tackle serious crime, including
serious violence, gun and knife crime, child sexual exploitation and help
protect the vulnerable.”
London has faced several terror attacks, and seen an
increase in crime, in recent years. In November, the police shot and killed a man wearing a fake bomb on London
Bridge, after two people were fatally stabbed. The police called the attack a
terror incident. In 2017, another stabbing attack left eight dead and dozens
wounded. Knife crime in England and Wales rose to a record high in the first
nine months of last year, according to government statistics.
“Every day, our police officers are briefed about suspects
they should look out for,” Nick Ephgrave, assistant commissioner of the police
department, said in the statement. Live facial recognition, he said, “improves
the effectiveness of this tactic.”
“As a modern police force, I believe that we have a duty to
use new technologies to keep people safe in London,” he added.
Facial recognition, already widespread in China, is gaining
traction in Western countries. Many cities and police departments, like the New
York Police Department, use technology comparing photos and other static images
against a database of mug shots. An investigation by The New York Times this month found that more than 600 law
enforcement agencies are using a facial recognition system by the company
Clearview AI.
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1 comment:
How to actually assess the accuracy of facial recognition.
A worked example:
https://allevate.com/2019/11/26/facial-recognition-accuracy-example/
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