Essex Police introduce Live Facial Recognition cameras in Southend

Essex Police has acquired these live facial recognition vans and is now deploying them around the county.

Two of the new facial recognition police vans were used in Southend over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The vans have two high-definition cameras mounted on top of them which scan people’s faces. If the system notices a person of interest from a police list, it alerts officers.

In Southend, there were five positive alerts as a result of the new Live Facial Recognition technology.

These positive alerts resulted in two arrests – one for harassment and one for sexual assault. In the other instances, a voluntary interview was arranged.

Essex Police say the technology automatically deletes the faces of people it is not looking for and it only stores the video footage for 24 hours.

The force says it will be using the technology to find people wanted for serious offences, to help enforce orders against those whose faces are put on a ‘watch list’ and to protect those who are vulnerable and at risk of harm.

If your face is not on the watch list, the technology deletes your image immediately. The technology is so advanced, it can recognise someone’s face even if it is partially covered.

Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow said: “This technology is an investment in our communities. It’s an effective way of finding people we want to speak to and keeping the public safe, as our first two deployments have shown.

“This technology can be a more efficient use of resources than having officers undertaking various time-consuming enquiries to locate them. It means those officers are able to do other work to protect and help the public, and further investigations.

“Cutting edge technology is playing an important role in protecting the public, responding to and investigating crimes, and getting justice for victims. Criminals cannot think that they can walk around our communities without being caught.”