Facial recognition flags 1 ‘criminal’ in 330,000 faces – but it’s a false alarm

Out of the 330,000 commuters scanned with facial recognition cameras in London, only one person has been flagged as a criminal – and even that was a false alarm.

British Transport Police has deployed the controversial live facial recognition (LFR) cameras across ‘crime hotspots’ in London’s busiest stations since February in a bid to identify people wanted by police.

They have carried out 13 deployments so far – representing around 50 hours of officers’ time – but no criminals have been found.

Only one face has ever triggered an alert by the system at King’s Cross Station in February, but this was later found to be an error.

In total, the force says they have scanned an estimated:

• 92,784 faces in Waterloo Station
• 71,945 faces in Euston
• 51,948 faces in Victoria
• 45,332 faces in King’s Cross
• 17,478 faces in St Pancras
• 17,219 in Liverpool Street
• 16,156 in London Bridge

Big Brother Watch said: ‘The figures from the British Transport Police’s live facial recognition pilot would be laughable, if they didn’t have such troubling implications for our rights and freedoms.

‘Millions of Londoners use the city’s stations every day and may have already found themselves caught in a digital police line-up, likely without even realising. It’s not fair to subject innocent people to intrusive identity checks during their commute.’

A British Transport Police spokesperson said: ‘To date, no alerts have resulted in a confirmed match. We have set a deliberately high threshold to prioritise accuracy and reduce the likelihood of misidentification, with all alerts subject to officer review before any engagement.

‘LFR is being deployed as part of wider policing operations at stations, alongside existing patrols and engagement activity, to keep passengers and staff safe.

‘During these deployments, officers have made 13 arrests for offences including breach of Criminal Behaviour Orders, theft and public order offences. Four people were arrested after being identified as wanted by other forces.

‘As these arrests were not as a direct result of a facial match using the LFR technology, they are not included within LFR performance data.

‘We can confirm that we have seen a reduction in crime during the periods where these operations have been in place, which reflects the broader policing activity and increased officer presence.’

Facial recognition at shops

The technology is not just used in stations. Metro has reported people’s faces are being scanned as they enter shops by private LFR operator Facewatch, which, despite claiming a 99.98% accuracy, is making mistakes.

Last month, mum Anamaria was left feeling humiliated after staff at Sports Direct in Woolwich came up to her and called her a thief in front of customers.

She had been wrongly placed in Facewatch’s facial recognition system as having stolen a pair of shoes, something which she had to prove she did not do.

And in February, Sainsbury’s shopper Warren Rajah was escorted out of the Elephant and Castle branch after he was mistakenly identified as a thief.

The Metropolitan Police, which is the first force to ever install permanent live facial recognition cameras (LFR), announced yesterday they are expanding their own program.

Cameras will soon be brought to the West End and Soho, after they had better success than BTP and arrested 173 people while LFR was deployed for six months in Croydon.

This included a woman who had been wanted for more than 20 years.

After Metro visited Croydon to see the cameras in action, most residents said they supported the cameras as crime had become ‘out of control’ in the area.

Shannon Kirwin, 20, helps run her family’s food van Old Skool Food, said she welcomes the crime reduction after seeing so many youths ‘go for each other’.

She said: ‘I have sat in this food van, and I have seen gangs just pull out weapons on each other right in front of me – the place has gone down massively over the last decade.

‘But all the ones who are committing crimes are wearing balaclavas and face coverings, is there even any point to the cameras if they can’t see through that.’

Local musician Christian added the crime levels in the area ‘is getting ridiculous’.

He said: ‘I think it’s a good thing. This place is no longer a nice place. If you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s no need to be worried.’

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