Suggestions that facial recognition could be scanning motorists as they go about their lawful business have been dashed by a three month experiment by British Transport Police (BTP). The force spent more than £320,000 on a six-month live facial recognition (LFR) trial across London’s railway stations, scanning upwards of ½ million faces yet failing to produce a single arrest.
The pilot programme ran from February to July this year, deploying the surveillance technology 18 times at some of the capital’s busiest transport hubs. Freedom of information documents obtained by Liberty Investigates reveals the entire exercise generated just one watchlist alert that proved to be a false positive.
Equipment hire and officer staffing consumed £320,786 and nearly 100 hours of police time across the trial period. The technology was intended to identify wanted criminals and individuals in breach of court orders.
Despite these underwhelming results, BTP has announced that it would extend the pilot by four months and broaden its scope to London Underground stations.
Since the extension began, three confirmed positive alerts have been recorded, though individuals identified were found to be complying with their sexual harm prevention orders or other court-imposed conditions.
Last year, Department of Transport (DafT) officials told GLTN that they had no “immediate plans” to employ facial recognition onto their automatic number plate recognition camera (ANPR) network as: “the technology is not yet mature”.
GLTN understands that as late as three months ago the plans were revived when examining methods of making cyclists conform to road traffic acts and to force them to make a contribution toward road costs – a cyclists’ road tax.
In Driver & Vehicle Standard’s Agency (DVSA) brainstorming meetings held to try and find a way to stop false, and ghost number plate cloning – highlighted in this week’s edition of BBC1 Panorama, laser-reflective seals were discussed that would reflect back a unique identification as proof of a genuine number plate being scanned. But that idea was dropped on grounds of cost.
Sources inside Transport for London tell GLTN up to one in 15 of all license plates scanned could be cloned, false, or be ghost plates produced specifically not to reflect the infra red beam of the ANPR camera network.
Brian Gregory, Policy Director for The Alliance of British Drivers, commented: “Over-reliance on immature technological solutions provides additional costs (eventually passed on to road users via higher bills) with zero tangible benefits.
“Go back to ‘beat bobbies’ and sufficient, well-trained traffic coppers in cars.”
ENDS
Author Richard Town is a former GLC councillor and metropolitan police driver. He writes here on behalf of The Alliance of British Drivers (ABD).
For all media enquiries, contact Paul Naylor on 07914 304 504 or email paul@mediaandyou.co.uk
Notes: Founded in 1992, the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) is the leading organisation promoting the interests and concerns of drivers in the United Kingdom.
The UK has over 37 million drivers – that is a majority; we should stop tolerating the way we are treated by the government and local councils.
Cars, vans and taxis account for 80% of the mileage of all trips in the UK, and over 65% of goods being carried by road. The road network, and the people who use it, are of vital importance to the nation’s economy. Drivers should expect the road network to be improved and maintained to a standard that is fit for purpose. They should be able to use the roads in a safe and responsible manner without being subject to unreasonable charges, restrictions or penalties.
