Facial recognition vans 100% accurate, say police

Live facial recognition vans used by Sussex Police have been "100% accurate" since the technology was introduced, the force says.

Officers say all 61 alerts raised during operations in the past three months correctly identified people who were then stopped on the street.

Ch Insp Jim Loader said there had "not been any false positives" and added that charges in cases involving the technology "will be coming".

But critics, including Brighton Pavilion MP Sian Berry, argue there should still be a "very high bar" for using the technology, claiming it invades privacy.

Speaking during an operation outside Churchill Square Shopping Centre in Brighton, Loader added: "All of those alerts have been who the van thinks they should be.

"I know there has been concerns in the early stages of this technology about differences based on gender, ethnicity or age - we are not seeing that."

Sussex and Surrey Police recently began using the facial recognition technology, which uses a van with live cameras connected to specialist software.

The cameras check faces of people walking past against police databases and flag people of interest such as criminals, suspects or those wanted on recall to prison.

Campaign groups have previously raised concerns that the cameras may reinforce racial biases.

Green MP Berry told BBC South East that parliament had not yet had a chance to debate and scrutinise the technology.

She said: "The European Union set a very high bar of really serious crimes and genuine emergencies for use of this - I think we [MPs] would do the same.

"Filling a city like Brighton with police saying they were watching you really damages our visitor economy.

"We need to have better rules in place to see police dealing with things in a normal, community policing way."

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