Western Australia Police has taken its overt live facial recognition trial to Geraldton, marking the first regional deployment in a program that began in the Perth metropolitan area.
The force operated the technology in central Geraldton on September 11 and 12 from a marked police vehicle. Warning signs were placed nearby so that people entering the camera’s field of view could see that facial recognition was in use.
The system detects a face, creates a temporary biometric template and compares it with a predetermined alert list. A possible match is sent to a trained officer for review. The officer can then decide whether there is a basis to approach the person, but Western Australia Police says an alert by itself does not provide grounds for an arrest.
The force can build alert lists for a specific operation and says they may contain people wanted for serious offenses, people reported missing or individuals believed to present a risk to themselves or others. Images and biometric data belonging to people who do not match the list are deleted immediately.
The regional deployment extends an overt trial launched in June. The first phase used a mobile system in Perth and other metropolitan locations rather than connecting facial recognition to the state’s fixed camera network.
Western Australia Police subsequently said that the technology had scanned about 130,000 faces and contributed to 19 arrests during its early deployments. Those arrests included people sought on warrants and suspects in alleged offenses, according to the force.
WA Police says a confirmed alert record may be retained when it is required for an investigation or another policing purpose. Deployment logs, watchlist construction and officer review are also part of the trial’s operating procedures.
The force describes the current program as overt, targeted and time-limited. Geraldton, a coastal city about 420 kilometers north of Perth, gives police an opportunity to use the mobile equipment outside the densely populated metropolitan settings where the first deployments took place.
Alert lists are approved before each deployment and tailored to the operation, rather than drawing on every photograph available to the force.
Sources: Western Australia Police Force, Government of Western Australia
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
