Police deploying high-tech facial recognition to catch 'priority' criminals in Gosport
‘Priority suspects’ will be the police’s focus this week.
Police are hoping to catch criminals who are “high risk and priority” as they get their hands on advanced technology.
In Gosport this week, officers will be using live facial recognition (LFR) vans across the town, as part of a planned operation to target known priority suspects in the area.
It follows a successful pilot in 2024, which allowed officers to see for themselves how the technology can quickly identify suspects wanted for high risk and priority offences. The vans - which are clearly marked - can scan crowds to identify suspects at a rate and with a level of accuracy that cannot be replicated by officers on the ground.
Any alerts are verified by the specialist trained operator and then assigned to officers on the ground to assess the information and consider the next steps. This ensures there is still a human making the decision around what intervention to take.
Any biometric templates that do not cause an alert are automatically deleted within seconds, meaning that no personal data is stored. If you’re not on the list, your face cannot be matched.
A unique watchlist is created for each deployment, ensuring that each operation targets those high-risk and high-harm crimes affecting that community and any wanted offenders with links to that area.
A spokesperson for Gosport Police said: “Our Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans are driving into Gosport to help us target criminals and keep our communities safe.
The vans will head to Gosport town centre on Monday, November 16 and local officers will be joined by our specialist team to help identify suspects for high risk and priority offences, as well as helping to find any high-risk missing people.”