Session 3 – Article 2 Metropolitan police facial recognition technology
In a report carried out it showed how four out of five suspects identified by the metro police are are innocent . Researchers found that this method is 8.1% inaccurate referring that in majority of the cases that the faces flagged by the police are not on the wanted list .
The Met has conducted 10 trials at different locations to monitor crowds using life facial recognition . Professors such as Professor Pete Fussey and Dr Daragh Murray conducted a research to evaluate the accuracy of the technology which resulted to only 8 were verified correct and showed a rate of 8.1% not being correct, also that four from the 42 were not found as they were in the crowd . They also mentioned that this technology ignores the fundamental human rights that if someone decides to take the met to court there would be a chance that it will be a successful challenge . The co-authors did come to an agreement that this technology comes with operational problems when coming to getting consent of those affected .
According to that report that the data to create the watch list is not current so people who’s case have been addressed were being stopped which makes the system not sufficient . The Met’s senior technologist addressed that a huge investment to the system so that the people on the police’s list would be legal . The Facial recognition system did bring an issue when the Met were being challenged in court by Big Brother Watch as they were campaigning against surveillance .
In my opinion this can help the police in an investigation and if it is used properly can solve crimes quicker , but also people will feel uncomfortable if they are being watched by the police even if they are innocent . This IT system can also use an issue for the new data protection laws as citizens will not feel protected . In conclusion this system can be a great one if used properly and accurate so investments shall be done to update the systems to make them greater and ensure people are safe .