Facial recognition tech trial in Ipswich leads to five arrests for offenses including shop theft and warrants.
The tech uses cameras and compares live face images. It checks them against a “watch list,” which has people they are watching.
Police arrested five people; four didn’t show up in court, and one person was arrested for shop theft.
Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s police commissioner, is happy with the trial’s early results. He thinks it can help prevent crime. The tech already helps other forces.
If you are not on the list, your face is not saved. The police trialled the tech for six hours. It scanned over 47,000 faces quickly; each scan took less than a second. If there is no match, the face gets deleted fast.
If there is a match, police confirm it, then they take action as needed.
Eamonn Bridger, a high-ranking Suffolk officer, said the tech works well elsewhere and finds and arrests suspects, expressing he was happy with the trial outcome. Bridger thinks the tech helps protect people. It aids crime investigation and justice.
Officers save time, too, so they can do other tasks. People were curious about the tech. They came to learn more about it.
Many looked inside the van and saw it work. Most people were positive about it. Police showed how the system works and how faces blur if not matched. They will now think about the trial results and hope to use this tech again.