More live facial recognition (LFR) vans will be rolled out across seven police forces in England to locate suspects for crimes including sexual offences, violent assaults and homicides, the Home Office has announced.
The forces will get access to 10 new vans equipped with cameras which scan the faces of people walking past and check them against a list of wanted people.
The government says the technology has been used in London to make 580 arrests in 12 months, including 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions.
However, campaign group Big Brother Watch said the “significant expansion of the surveillance state” was “alarming”.
Live facial recognition was first used in England and Wales in 2017 during the Uefa Champions League final football match in Cardiff.
Since then its use has largely been confined to South Wales, London and Essex including at a Beyoncé concert to scan for paedophiles and terrorists.
The government is now funding ten vans equipped with LFR to be shared between seven forces, approximately doubling the number of vehicles.
The seven forces are Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.
The technology identifies people by taking measurements of facial features including the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline and then comparing the data to to an existing watchlist.
Each van will be staffed with a trained officer who checks the matches identified by the technology.
Simultaneously, the government is holding a consultation on what safeguards are needed to “ensure transparency and public confidence”, ahead of drawing up a new legal framework.
Big Brother Watch is bringing a legal challenge against the Met Police’s use of the technology, alongside Shaun Thompson, who was wrongly identified by an LFR camera.
Rebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Police have interpreted the absence of any legislative basis authorising the use of this intrusive technology as carte blanche to continue to roll it out unfettered, despite the fact that a crucial judicial review on the matter is pending.
“The Home Office must scrap its plans to roll out further live facial recognition capacity until robust legislative safeguards are established.”
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “It’s welcome news that the government will finally develop a statutory framework on the use of facial recognition, but this should be in place before more facial recognition technology is rolled out.
“There’s no reasonable excuse to be putting even more cameras on our streets before the public have had their say and legislation is brought in to protect all of us.”
The government says officers using the LFR vans will need to follow the College of Policing’s guidance on the technology and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.
It also says independent testing of the facial recognition algorithm by the National Physical Laboratory found that “the algorithm is accurate and there is no bias for ethnicity, age or gender at the settings used by the police”.
Chief Superintendent of South Wales Police Tim Morgan said: “We understand the concerns which are raised about the use of live facial recognition technology and we use any new technology ethically and spend time and effort making sure it’s deployed in line with all legislation and guidance.”
The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents police officers, said: “The government must also invest in comprehensive training programmes for officers to accompany this technology rollout, particularly as police forces face an unprecedented officer retention crisis.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government would “provide police with the tools they need to do their jobs”.
“Facial recognition will be used in a targeted way to identify sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes who the police have not been able to find.”
The Home Office has also announced that it has fulfilled a manifesto pledge to ensure there is a named, contactable officer in every neighbourhood in England and Wales.
It said people can search for an officer on the website of local police forces, who have signed up to a commitment to respond to queries within 72 hours.
The type of contact method provided will be up to individual forces.