Police to deploy Live Facial Recognition vans in Portsmouth

Police will deploy Live Facial Recognition vans in Portsmouth on Wednesday 11 November, using the technology to target criminals and keep communities safe.

The specialist technology team will join forces with local officers to help identify suspects for high risk and priority offences, as well as helping to find high risk missing people.

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight police force are deploying two new, fully-equipped vans across the local area following a successful pilot last year.

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Facial recognition can scan crowds to identify suspects at a rate and with a better level of accuracy than human officers. Any alerts set off by the technology are verified by a specialist trained operator, and then assigned to officers on the ground to assess the information and consider the next steps.

A watchlist is created for each deployment of the technology, ensuring that each operation targets those high-risk and high-harm crimes affecting the community, and any wanted offenders with links to that area. Any faces that do not cause an alert are automatically deleted within seconds, meaning that no personal data is stored.

The vans will be clearly marked, with posters and leaflets being handed out in the area, notifying people of the operation and how it works. The officers working with the vans will also be able to answer questions from the public

Assistant Chief Constable for the Joint Operations Unit, Robert France, said: “We are very excited to get these vans out into our communities where they can really make a difference when it comes to fighting crime.

“We have seen how successful the use of this technology has been for other forces across the country when it comes to arresting outstanding suspects, so we cannot wait to get them deployed and supporting our officers on their patrols.

“It was clear from our pilot in September last year, just what an effective tool it can be for our teams, not just when it comes to tracking down high priority suspects but also to help reduce crime in the area more generally.

“This sort of precision policing that sees the latest technology working in the background targeting those most wanted criminals, allows our officers to focus more on responding to emergencies, spending time patrolling and investigating crime.

“We’re also excited to see how it can support us helping the most vulnerable within our communities too, especially when it comes to high-risk missing people, when time really is of essence.

“We know that some people are concerned about misidentification, particularly in relation to those from ethnic minority backgrounds and women. This is a really important issue and the technology has been significantly upgraded and undergone stringent independent testing to address the issues which were identified in early versions of the software as far back as 2019. I am confident that we will see extremely low levels of misidentification and we will be monitoring this closely.

“We do understand the concerns and are committed to ensuring ongoing and open dialogue with communities and individuals across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Our teams will always be happy to speak to anyone during the deployments to discuss how it all works and explain the strict parameters within which we must operate.

“I believe it is vitally important that as a police force, we equip our officers with the very best tools available to them to help take criminals off the streets, get justice for victims and ultimately, keep people safer.”

Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Donna Jones, said: “This technology is ground-breaking. It's helping lead to the faster detention of suspects which is freeing up police time to fight crime, patrol our streets and respond to emergencies.

“This is a forward-thinking approach for modern policing and is another vital step in further protecting our communities.”

You can find more information about Live Facial Recognition technology here.