Police to roll-out live facial recognition cameras

The equipment trialled by Essex Police in October 2023 was on loan from South Wales Police

Essex Police is preparing to roll-out live facial recognition (LFR) technology for permanent use by officers.

It follows a trial by the force on the streets of Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea in October 2023.

Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said it would only be used to catch wanted individuals or those who could be about to commit "really serious" crimes.

"It is always an officer who makes the decision whether someone should be arrested or not," he told BBC Essex.

The "overt" kit consists of surveillance cameras mounted on marked police vans.

During last year's trials, officers arrested three people after receiving five alerts triggered by LFR across two days.

One person was arrested on suspicion of rape, the force said.

Ben-Julian Harrington says he is "excited" by the technology

Mr Harrington said use of the technology would be "fair" and involve consultation periods with the public.

"We’re going to pick up people perhaps who are going to hurt people, to commit crime," he said.

"We're not picking people up for parking tickets and more minor offences, it's the real serious stuff."

The technology would automatically and immediately delete the faces of people it was not looking for, the chief constable said.

• Listen: Essex Police officers to use facial recognition

He said the force also identified 78 offenders during use of retrospective facial recognition in May and June.

This included the use of images captured by home security cameras - such as doorbells - shared with the police by residents.

The images were then ran through the force's database, a police spokesman said.

"We’re really excited about that. We want to show we’re using technology," Mr Harrington added.