The Metropolitan Police is installing the UK’s first PERMANENT live facial recognition cameras in Croydon, London. Privacy rights campaigners have called this move “unprecedented”. Rebecca Vincent, Interim Director of Big Brother Watch said: “We are alarmed by reports that the Metropolitan Police Service is installing an unprecedented permanent network of fixed live facial recognition cameras across Croydon town centre, which marks a worrying escalation in the use of LFR with no oversight or legislative basis.
This comes on the back of a failed trial in Cardiff, where anyone who entered the city centre was subjected to mass surveillance through a network of temporary LFR cameras, as police scanned more than 160,000 faces during a Six Nations game, but made zero arrests.
It’s time to stop this steady slide into a dystopian nightmare, and halt all use of LFR technology across the UK until legislative safeguards are introduced”.
The Times – UK’s first permanent facial recognition cameras installed in London
ITV News – Police to roll out London’s first permanent facial recognition cameras
Daily Mail – UK’s first permanent facial recognition cameras installed in south London
Metro – First permanent facial recognition cameras to go up in London despite ‘dystopian’ warning
GB News – Britain’s first permanent facial recognition cameras installed to help hunt for criminals