Tooting residents expressed mixed reactions to the Met Police’s new live facial recognition technology, installed outside Tooting Broadway station on Tuesday.
Residents are hesitant to embrace the new technology, with many expressing mixed opinions and confusion as to how their personal details will be used.
The technology aims to reduce crime in targeted areas more efficiently and Wandsworth Police claim cameras installed last week outside Clapham Junction station have already resulted in two arrests.
Yet Paul, 27, a pharmacist and Tooting resident, expressed discomfort with the lack of consent associated with the cameras capturing footage.
He said: “It feels like an invasion of privacy. In the medical profession you need consent to access confidential information so it feels invasive in that way.”
Live facial recognition cameras capture footage of the public passing by, comparing facial details with a pre-approved watchlist from the police.
If alerted to a wanted criminal by the cameras, police officers on the ground decide what action to take.
A 23 year old bartender admits she does not feel safer with the technology, yet thinks it could be an important initiative to combat increases in petty theft that she has been witnessing within Tooting.
Live facial recognition has been heavily criticised in particular due to its collection of sensitive biometric information as well as the lack of legislation.
UK civil liberties campaign group, Big Brother Watch, think that the faceprint taken by the police’s cameras are a threat to the general public’s freedom.
The campaign group said: “Outsourcing policing to a camera and an algorithm not only represents a serious invasion of the public’s right to privacy, but innocent people at risk of misidentifications of justice.
“The Met Police should abandon its use of this inefficient and invasive technology.”
In response to these concerns about privacy, a Met spokesperson has explained that if a member of the public not on a police watchlist walks past a camera, their biometric details are immediately and permanently deleted.
Using facial recognition technology, a police spokesperson said that they have arrested 540 people and charged 406 of these people, including sex offenders and violent criminals.
Lindsey Chiswick, the Met’s Director of Performance, added: “Live facial recognition is helping us deliver justice more effectively while making our streets safer.”
Wandsworth Council were approached for a comment.
Feature picture credit: Emily Edge
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