Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s first live facial recognition operation in Cambridge produced four positive matches and three arrests after scanning 29,361 faces. The force has released the results of the October 2 deployment in Market Square and Sidney Street.
The six-hour operation ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and compared images from live cameras with a watchlist containing 917 people. Live facial recognition checks faces captured in a video feed against selected police images, generating potential matches for officers to assess.
Two of those arrested were men aged 63 and 39 who were wanted for failing to appear. A 52-year-old man was arrested in connection with theft and has since been charged with theft of a pedal cycle and theft by finding. The scan total records faces processed during the operation, rather than a count of distinct people.
A trained officer reviews each potential match before police take action. The force uses the technology to help locate wanted suspects, people subject to court-issued warrants and high-risk offenders. Officers remain responsible for deciding how to respond to an alert.
Police say images and biometric data belonging to people who do not generate an alert are automatically deleted and cannot be recovered. The watchlist assembled for the operation is removed within 24 hours.
Inspector Sam Tucker, who oversaw the deployment, described the first Cambridge operation as encouraging. He said officers spoke with members of the public about how the technology works and the safeguards surrounding its use, while remaining available to respond to incidents in the city centre.
The force had scheduled the Cambridge deployment following operations in Peterborough. Its advance notice described the watchlist categories, officer review and automatic deletion arrangements, with officers available on site to explain the checks.
Cambridgeshire’s first city-centre deployment in Peterborough was scheduled for May along Long Causeway and Broadway, using equipment borrowed from Bedfordshire Police. Public information for that operation included marked deployment locations and QR codes directing people to an explanation of the technology. The force’s arrangements for Peterborough also included ethics-panel scrutiny, oversight by the Police and Crime Commissioner and publication of results after each deployment.
Sources: Cambridgeshire Constabulary
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
