British Transport Police (BTP) have spent more than £320k and almost 100 hours of officers’ time on a six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology in London’s railway stations – yielding just one incorrect face match and no arrests.
The surveillance tech scans passersby and alerts authorities if it recognises someone on a watchlist. It is supposed to help catch people accused of crimes or who breach court orders.
But a freedom of information request by Liberty Investigates, shared with the Guardian in September, revealed that after scanning more than half a million faces between February and July, the tech only sent one suspect alert, and that turned out to be a false positive.
Despite this failure, Transport for London (TfL) has given permission for the technology to be expanded across London Underground stations too.
Well, at least there aren't dozens of false positives and people getting arrested or shot, like with Flock in America.
That's the bit that gets me.
It failed miserably and yet they still think doubling down will make it successful. Stop believing the hype!!
Cut your losses on the 320K, consider it an unsuccessful trial and move on.
Also, 100 hours is like 2 offices working for a week, so it really isn't terrible in terms of man hours.
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