London's Metropolitan Police Service has begun using real-time facial recognition technology (LFR - Live Facial Recognition). The corresponding notification was published on the agency's webpage. The police are confident that this will help combat serious crimes, including violence, the use of firearms and cold weapons, and more.
Special cameras have been installed at key locations in the city, which scan the faces of passersby, alerting police officers in cases where a person is identified by the system as a wanted criminal. The police assure that images received from the cameras that are not related to crime are not stored and not processed by any other platforms. The decision to store images will be made by the appropriate officials in the police service.
Despite the fact that law enforcement is confident in the usefulness of the LFR system, many are skeptical of it, calling it ineffective, and in some cases even illegal. For example, last April, researchers from the University of Essex found that the error rate in the operation of the LFR system can reach 81%. Last year, the technology began to be used by the South Wales police. During its use, about 2,300 innocent people were detained by officers as potential criminals.
It should be noted that London police began implementing the LFR system at a less than opportune time. A few days ago, it became known that European lawmakers the use of facial recognition technologies in public places within the European Union for up to five years. The corresponding proposal will be considered next month.
Źródło: 3dnews.ru
