Police forces are coming under fire for their trials of live facial recognition technology
Text: Sara Rigby
Sara Rigby is the online assistant for BBC Science Focus. She has an MPhys in mathematical physics.
What is it?
Live facial recognition (LFR), also known as automatic facial recognition, identifies people in a video in real time, using a set of photographs as a reference. When used in public, cameras scan a crowd
and the software highlights any matches between members of the public and the people in their database.
How does it work?
The live video feed is scanned for faces. Each face that is found is then mapped by the software, taking measurements of facial features, such as the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline, to create a unique set of biometric data. This dataset is then compared to a database of people to be identified. For the police, this database contains people with outstanding warrants. If the system judges the face to be sufficiently similar to someone in its database, this match is highlighted.
Who is using it?
In the UK, the London Metropolitan Police (the Met), the South Wales Police and Leicestershire Police have all trialled the technology in public since 2015. The system was tested at Download Festival in 2015, the Champions League final and Notting Hill Carnival in 2017, among other events, with the Met’s final test taking place on 14 February 2019. In these cases, the database consists of photos of people wanted by the police or courts. If the system makes a match, it presents the police with both images, so they can decide whether to stop and speak to the person. Unmatched faces are deleted straight away, and matched images are deleted after 30 days.
Other facial recognition systems are already in use. In 2004, EU countries began to incorporate biometric data into new ePassports, identifiable by a small, gold camera logo on the front cover. The microchip embedded in the cover contains both the holder’s personal information and photograph. In many airports across Europe, as well as Eurostar terminals in Paris and Brussels, travellers can verify their identity with the facial recognition systems in automated ePassport gates in immigration halls.
Trials of facial recognition software were also carried out in three prisons in an attempt to combat drug smuggling. HMP Hull saw a 40% drop in visitors during this time, and a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice described this as a successful deterrent.
[blur] Amazon’s facial recognition system, Rekognition, has been tested by police forces in the US, including Orlando Police Department in Florida and Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon. It was reported in July 2019 that the system had been abandoned in Orlando after 15 months of unsuccessful trials. The FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have also used the technology to identify undocumented immigrants from their driving licence photographs. [/blur]
