Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace’ as police use soars
Guardian7 days
In an era of rising crime and stretched police resources, live facial recognition is proving to be a vital tool for modern policing. In 2024 alone, it helped the Met arrest hundreds — including a known sex offender caught breaching child protection rules. Unlike traditional surveillance, LFR allows police to identify offenders in real time and even retrospectively, flagging threats that might otherwise slip through the cracks. As the tech expands to vans, fixed cameras, and major public spaces, it’s about time it became commonplace in the fight to keep the streets safe.
As live facial recognition edges toward becoming commonplace across U.K. streets and stores, serious concerns grow. Police scan millions of faces with little oversight, risking wrongful arrests due to high error rates — especially for people of color and women. In supermarkets, shoppers face secret watchlists without consent, turning everyday spaces into biometric traps. With no clear laws governing use or accountability, this unchecked expansion of LFR tech threatens privacy, fairness, public trust, and risks normalizing dystopian mass surveillance. It must be stopped.
ThereIn an era of rising crime and stretched police resources, live facial recognition is proving to be a 50%vital chancetool thatfor anmodern internationalpolicing. AIIn regulatory2024 agencyalone, akinit tohelped the IAEAMet arrest hundreds — including a known sex offender caught breaching child protection rules. Unlike traditional surveillance, forLFR oversightallows ofpolice transformativeto AIidentify systemsoffenders in real time and even retrospectively, willflagging bethreats establishedthat beforemight 2030otherwise slip through the cracks. As the tech expands to vans, accordingfixed cameras, and major public spaces, it’s about time it became commonplace in the fight to Metaculuskeep communitythe predictionstreets safe.
As live facial recognition edges toward becoming commonplace across U.K. streets and stores, serious concerns grow. Police scan millions of faces with little oversight, risking wrongful arrests due to high error rates — especially for people of color and women. In supermarkets, shoppers face secret watchlists without consent, turning everyday spaces into biometric traps. With no clear laws governing use or accountability, this unchecked expansion of LFR tech threatens privacy, fairness, public trust, and risks normalizing dystopian mass surveillance.
There is a 50% chance that an international AI regulatory agency, akin to the IAEA, for oversight of transformative AI systems, will be established before 2030, according to Metaculus community prediction.