Facial recognition technology will be as big as DNA in transforming criminal investigations, Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley says
- Sir Mark said officers were using the technology to identify ‘unknown suspects’
Britain’s top police officer predicted yesterday that facial recognition technology will be as significant as DNA in transforming criminal investigations.
Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley revealed that officers were using the technology to identify ‘unknown suspects’, saying the results were ‘beyond what I expected’.
In an apparent reference to the capture of fugitive terror suspect Daniel Khalife, Sir Mark said: ‘We’ve also shown recently that live facial recognition is massively effective at picking out wanted offenders from crowds of people.’
He also told the Policy Exchange think tank: ‘The next step is more exciting: retroactively using facial recognition to identify unknown suspects from CCTV images is showing immense potential.
‘The results are beyond what I expected and are going to transform investigative work, potentially, in the way that DNA transformed investigative work 30 years ago.’
Live facial recognition uses cameras to scan faces in a specific area and streams images to a database of people the police are looking for.
Now the force is using retrospective facial recognition (RFT) after a crime to help officers establish who the suspect is and if their image matches other media on databases.
Yesterday Katy Watts, lawyer for campaign group Liberty, warned the ‘dystopian’ RFT technology could mean ‘intrusive surveillance’ for protesters or those caught on CCTV.
At the event marking his first year in post, Sir Mark called for reforms to stop the police being tied up in bureaucracy.
He also criticised watchdogs for launching criminal cases against some officers while acknowledging there were still ‘hundred’ of police who should have been sacked for wrongdoing.
The force chief told event host Sir Trevor Phillips that officers’ confidence in pursuing criminals is undermined by possible prosecution if a suspect was killed or hurt.
Tom Whiting, acting director general at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, called the comments ‘disappointing’ saying the watchdog follows ‘legislation and evidence’ when deciding on cases.
