Home Secretary defends controversial police facial recognition as thousands already arrested
Facial recognition will also be rolled out across England and Wales, raising the number of vans carrying the controversial tech from 10 to 50
The Home Secretary has defended the rollout of facial recognition tech as "here's no true liberty if you are unsafe in your own country".
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In what she described as "the biggest reform to policing in two centuries", Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that more than £140 million in new technologies to help catch criminals across the country.
"I really believe that new technology has the ability to help us go after criminals and bring more people to justice," she told LBC.
All police forces across England and Wales will be handed artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help cut down crime, she told the House of Commons.
Facial recognition will also be rolled out across England and Wales, raising the number of vans carrying the controversial tech from 10 to 50.
When questioned about the possible dangers of AI facial recognition error, Ms Mahmood said: "There is no true liberty if you are unsafe in your own country and you can't go out of your front door because you're afraid of crime on your high street and in your local area."
She said "it's working" and that it's already led to 1700 arrests in the Met Police alone.
She added: "We are consulting on safeguards and the regulatory framework for the use of live facial recognition more broadly.
"I will make sure we have the strongest possible oversight in how we use this technology.
"But the technology does present a really big opportunity for us"
Ms Mahmood said that, despite possible errors of AI, the technology would be used in a "package of evidence", like fingerprinting and DNA that would ultimately be tested by defence in court.
As part of the policing overhaul, Ms Mahmood has also promised a neighbourhood officer for every council ward in England and Wales.
But the Government has not pledged a major increase in the number of warranted officers.
Instead, police forces will be merged to cut down on the cost of admin staff, with the number of services possibly being cut to as few as 12.
A national police service dubbed the ‘British FBI’ will take over national responsibilities, which ministers say too often take police away from the front line.
A White Paper outlining the government’s plans has pledged to protect neighbourhood officers from routinely being pulled to do other jobs.
Persistent protests have seen thousands of front-line officers being drawn away from their day-to-day roles to manage crowds, especially in London.