Written evidence submitted by
Ivan Balhatchet, Detective Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan Police Service (WBC0013)
Re: Automatic (Live) Facial Recognition Trials
I write to you in response to your letter dated 21st May in relation to the above. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has now concluded its trial of Live Facial Recognition Technology (LFR). The last formal trial was on 14th February 2019. The MPS is pleased that the technology – even though in a trial phase helped to show how it can keep people safe. In all, with very limited deployments, eight arrests were made directly from the technology with many relating to serious violence.
LFR is only an intelligence tool to potentially identify those who are wanted/of interest to police. Once anyone is subject to ‘a match/alert’ then police still need to verify identification by traditional means e.g. personal documents, Police National Computer (PNC) or other mobile technology such as fingerprints. LFR sits separately to any investigation – however, it may well be mentioned in individual witness statements but only to describe the events up until the person of interest was stopped.
I have also attached The London Policing and Ethics Panel independent evaluation of our trials that provide detailed information. Further evaluations will be published – the MPS will then decide the next steps after considering this information. For any further information, then please contact me.