Police Commissioner Cressida Dick made the comments on Wednesday at a London Assembly meeting aimed at addressing concerns about the trial and roll out of automated facial recognition (AFR) technology in parts of the city by her force.<\/p>\n
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Insisting that people living in the city would approve of the controversial measures, Dick said:<\/p>\n “If there’s a technology that we can use lawfully \u2013 which we can, this is one \u2013 and is available, which we are trialling with massive safeguards… [and there is] the notion that that technology might be used in limited circumstances to identify against a small list of wanted offenders for serious violence, [then] I think the public would expect us to be thinking about how we can use that technology, seeing if it\u2019s effective or efficient for us. And that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re doing,\u201d<\/em> according to a report of the meeting by The Register.<\/p>\n So far this year, the technology has been used four times and plans are in place to use the technology a further five times by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Her defense of AFR comes just one month after a freedom of information request by civil liberties campaigners Big Brother Watch, discovered that the Met\u2019s AFR had a 98 percent false positive rate and has only made two accurate matches.<\/p>\n Of the two correct matches the Met\u2019s technology has made to date, there have been zero arrests. One match was for an individual on an out-of-date watch list; the other for a person with mental health issues who frequently contacts public figures, but is not a criminal and not wanted for arrest, according to technology news site, The Verge.<\/p>\n Referring to the use of the technology as a \u201ctool\u201d<\/em> and a \u201ctactic,\u201d<\/em> Dick said: \u201cI\u2019m not expecting it to result in lots of arrests,\u201d<\/em> despite defending its continued use in the field.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Police face legal challenges over use of facial recognition software<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n BBW, which is campaigning for UK public authorities \u201cto immediately stop using automated facial recognition software with surveillance cameras,\u201d and is calling on the Home Office to \u201cautomatically remove the thousands of images of unconvicted individuals from the Police National Database.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to the technology and collection of data on citizens as an \u201cOrwellian surveillance tool,\u201d BBW said<\/a> AFR had \u201cno place on our streets,\u201d and along with Green Party peer Baroness Jenny Jones has written to the Home Office demanding its immediate cessation.<\/p>\n In June Dick admitted<\/a> to the Home Office select committee meeting that facial recognition is moving very fast, but legal frameworks pose a challenge. She dismissed these legal concerns on Wednesday, saying that she was \u201ccompletely comfortable\u201d with AFR\u2019s continued use.<\/p>\n Commissioner of the Met on facial recognition:<\/p>\n To Home Affairs Select Committee (5 June): \u201cfacial recognition [is] moving very fast\u2026 in the absence of legal frameworks\u201d<\/p>\n To London Assembly (4 July): \u201cI am completely comfortable [with its use] and we\u2019re going to carry on\u201d<\/p>\n 🤔<\/p>\n \u2014 Big Brother Watch (@bbw1984) July 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to carry on with the trial,\u201d<\/em> she added.<\/p>\n If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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