London police praise system that recognizes passers-by in real time and leads to daily arrests, while critics warn that there are no clear legal rules for such a practice
A delivery van is parked on the wide sidewalk of Sloan Square in London's Chelsea district. On its roof there are surveillance camera. A construction with additional cameras was placed just around the corner. Several uniformed policemen are on duty in front of the van.
That shopping street is always full of people. On the van, a notice was posted that an automatic facial recognition experiment was being conducted. The cameras scan the faces of passers-by, and the software immediately compares the images with the database containing the wanted persons. If the system recognizes a match, the photo automatically appears on the mobile phones of officers in the field. Arrests are almost everyday.
Ben Russell, director of the intelligence department of the London police, considers it a great success. Since 2024, around 2.500 people have been arrested, of which almost 900 this year alone. According to him, the technology has proven to be very effective.
Just during the interview with Russell, a man was arrested on a nearby street corner. The alarm was raised because the police suspect him of assaulting a police officer a few years ago.
The officers handcuffed the man after checking his identity, and then took him away. Just around the corner, a woman was also stopped, because she did not respond to a court-ordered drug test.
Police say false alarms are extremely rare. A mere match to a database is not enough to make an arrest. The person's identity must first be confirmed, including a check of their ID.
Among passersby, this practice causes divided reactions.
One young woman says that because of the presence police feels safer. An elderly lady, passing by a van, believes that it is necessary to find a balance between the protection of civil liberties and the fight against crime in a city like London. Another woman, however, complains that there is too much surveillance.
The cameras are in London placed on almost every corner. Police have been using video footage during investigations to identify perpetrators of crimes for years. However, a real-time facial recognition system is a significant step forward.
So far, it is for viewing recordings in Great Britain generally there had to be a specific investigation. The new system, however, actively searches for people who are in the police database.
Critics believe that this is a serious invasion of privacy. Some question whether this is the beginning of the creation of a police state.
Jack Coulson from the organization Big Brother Watch warns that it has not yet been precisely defined how the police can use facial recognition technology.
Coulson points out that facial scanning is particularly sensitive, as it enables unambiguous identification of an individual, and the collected data could be saved and used for various purposes.
"That data could be used for a variety of purposes. It is a very serious measure and a powerful tool for any government," says the activist.
Organizations like Big Brother Watch are demanding clear rules that would specify when, where and for what reasons the police can use real-time facial recognition.
They also seek a legal ban on storing data collected during such surveillance systems.
The draft law is due to be introduced in the fall. In the meantime, the police are already purchasing additional cameras and new vans to expand the system.
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