The Metropolitan Police will trial handheld facial recognition devices for six months, deploying 100 units in a program costing around £763,000. The trial involves Operator-Initiated Facial Recognition technology aimed at allowing officers to verify identities on the spot. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the London Policing Ethics Panel will oversee the use of OIFR technology.
The Met has been using facial recognition technology since 2020, making over 1,400 arrests with Live Facial Recognition and resulting in more than 1,000 people being charged or cautioned. The Met is facing a High Court challenge from campaigners over live facial recognition technology, with the use of AI in policing attracting controversy. Campaigners say live facial recognition technology scans faces in public spaces without sufficient safeguards and risks unfair or discriminatory use, while groups argue that it raises serious privacy concerns and lacks clear regulation.
The Met's website explicitly says they do not use handheld facial recognition technology, and there is no clear legal framework for Live Facial Recognition technology. Separately, the Met is considering using AI to help identify victims of online child sexual abuse and categorize imagery by severity. Over the past year, the Met investigated more than 5,400 child sexual abuse offences, with more than 1,300 children requiring safeguarding, and it currently manages over 12% of child sexual abuse cases nationally.
The Met is considering technology that would allow officers to review and risk-assess 641,000 messages in about 35 minutes. In other developments, 23 Victim and Resident Interview suite locations have been selected for renovation, with six sites now complete and Plumstead Police Station serving as the pilot.