Face-off in Britain over controversial surveillance tech

Civil liberties groups say the LFR technology is oppressive and has no place in a democracy. — Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

LONDON: On a grey, cloudy morning in December, London police deployed a state-of-the-art AI powered camera near the railway station in the suburb of Croydon and quietly scanned the faces of the unsuspecting passersby.

The use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology – which creates biometric facial signatures before instantaneously running them through a watchlist of suspects – led to 10 arrests for crimes including threats to kill, bank fraud, theft and possession of a crossbow.