Britain's policing minister punts facial recog nationwide
- Reference: 1759226467
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/30/britains_policing_minister_talks_up/
- Source link:
UK's first permanent facial recognition cameras installed in South London [1]READ MORE
Policing minister Sarah Jones confirmed the UK government is consulting on guidance on where, when, and how police forces can use LFR with publication due later this year. “What we’ve seen in Croydon is that it has worked,” she told a fringe event at the Labour party conference on September 29, referring to the Met’s installation of permanent LFR cameras in the town.
“We just need to make sure it’s clear what the technology is going to be useful for going forward. If we are going to use it more, if we do want to roll it out across the country, what are the parameters?” [2]she added . “Live facial recognition is a really good tool that has led to arrests that wouldn’t have come otherwise and it’s very, very valuable.”
In August, the Home Office said that [3]seven more police forces will start using ten new vans kitted out with LFR technology, in addition to existing use by the [4]Metropolitan Police in London and [5]South Wales Police . At the time it said the two forces have used LFR to make 580 arrests over the previous 12 months.
[6]Minority Report: Now with more spreadsheets and guesswork
[7]Sainsbury's eyes up shoplifters with live facial recognition
[8]UK secretly allows facial recognition scans of passport, immigration databases
[9]Privacy campaigners pour cold water on London cops' 1,000 facial recognition arrests
[10]Smile! UK cops spend tens of millions on live facial recognition tech
Police forces currently use LFR in a relatively limited way, looking for matches with people on a watchlist rather than logging data on everyone who passes enabled cameras. Officers then decide whether to act on matches reported by the system, rather than automatically stopping everyone it spots. Most deployments are temporary, but in March the Metropolitan Police said it had installed two permanent cameras in Croydon following a two-year trial of van-based systems.
LFR is far from infallible and [11]experts say it is more likely to misidentify black individuals . Police officers using LFR stopped Shaun Thompson, who was returning from volunteering with an anti-knife crime community organisation, outside London Bridge tube station in February 2024. He is taking the Metropolitan Police to judicial review with privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch.
Thompson, who is Black, [12]told the BBC that officers held him for about 30 minutes, wanted to scan his fingerprints and threatened him with arrest, despite him providing identity showing he was not the person on the watchlist.
[13]
"I want structural change. This is not the way forward. This is like living in Minority Report ," he said. “It's stop and search on steroids.” ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/27/uk_facial_recognition/
[2] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/live-facial-recognition-roll-out-nationwide-9kkwb78bq
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/uk_expands_police_facial_recognition/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/31/uk_police_minister_lfr/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/04/south_wales_police_use_of_facial_recognition_technology_ruled_lawful/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/16/uk_to_use_ai_to/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/sainsburys_lfr/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/uk_secretly_allows_facial_recognition/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/big_brother_watch_met_lfr/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/25/uk_police_lfr_tender/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/25/facial_recognition_system_used_by/
[12] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxg8v74d8jo
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aNv-mHZYk7aibscQ-HjP3gAAAg4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Yes, you missed the "If you're against this then you must be in favour of paedos/terrorists/illegal immigrants (delete as appropriate)".
"did I miss any knee-jerk justifications"
Terrorists.
Inetresting use
of the word nation. You mean England and (possibly) Wales?
England & Wales is not Britain
There is no policing minister of Britain. There is a policing minister of England & Wales though, but that ain't Britain.
Re: England & Wales is not Britain
It's the only bit of Britain they care about in Westminster.
And no-one cares about the other part of the United Kingdom.
Just to be sure
We’re also going to add facial recognition cameras to your telly.
That way, we can identify you in the comfort of your own home/squat/hostel.
You won’t even have to go outside to be a compliant citizen!
Re: Just to be sure
I believe there are some telly's (*) that do have inbuilt cameras. And goodness knows who has access to those already or in the future
* I'm not fully aware of the current state of modern telly's having not bought one for about 30 years..
Re: Just to be sure
> I believe there are some telly's (*) that do have inbuilt cameras
Strangely found in some hotel rooms pointing at the bed.
These days, a small roll of insulation tape lives in my travel bag. Handy for bodge repairs as well as for sticking over any unwanted lenses.
Re: Just to be sure
Strangely found in some hotel rooms pointing at the bed.
That will be really interesting for them to explain what was going on when a child takes his/her clothes of before going to bed.
I think .....
..... [1]one of these is going on my must have list.
[1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=vendetta%20mask
Re: I think .....
Several options available on that link. Did you mean the V ones? I hope not as that's what I look like.
Battle-tested digital ID/facial recognition
Tony Blair who just can't keep his hands off the Middle East gets to run Gaza. -> [1]Link
His best friend is Larry who gives him lots of money. -> [2]Link
Larry will need a testing ground for his mass surveillance cloud servers and Tony running Gaza will let him have that. -> [3]Link
Quote from a certain Andrew Orlowski who may be familiar to the commentariat: -> [4]Link
The Government's digital identity system creates lucrative new opportunities for Oracle, a database company. It has already hoovered up major government IT contracts in recent years and will be in pole position to land future work linked to ID cards. Tony Blair is really just a salesman for the tech companies, and flies around the world looking for naive Governments who want to believe in magical solutions.
The name of the fringe event at the Labour party conference mentioned in the article was the Tony Blair Institute fringe event. -> [5]Link
So when the UK rolls out digital ID the next step will be linking it to Larry's mass surveillance cloud servers which have already been tested.
I didn't even need to set up a conspiracy wall for this one, there's just one degree of separation.
Bemused Europeans outside of the UK who ask "Why can't the UK government be trusted with a modern ID system? We've got one and everything's fine", well it's because of stuff like this. The only thing that's saved the UK so far is government IT contracts repeatedly failing.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/30/tony-blair-jared-kushner-gaza-plan-catastrophe
[2] https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/09/inside-the-tony-blair-institute
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/16/oracle_ai_mass_surveillance_cloud/
[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15140649/tech-giant-Blair-257m-ID-card-contract.html
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/29/labour-plans-consult-live-facial-recognition-roll-out
Don't worry, I'm confident that this one will be botched as well.
After having cost half a billion, of course. Friends have to get something out of the mess.
I'm sure they'll be getting a nice tranche of personal data as well.
Single-Issue Platform
They're espousing all the benefits that *they* receive - or think they receive from this. When they advocate for a single-issue platform, there are of course no drawbacks whatsoever!
Onward and forward! Toward the single issue platform! Probably sideways, backward, zigzag, and falling off the bridge else-wise though.
In Dubai you are never not on a camera
Apart from if its your own house or most hotel rooms.
Leave the house/hotel room and you are on a camera. Every Brit LOVES Dubai no?
So whats the issue?
Re: In Dubai you are never not on a camera
Clearly no issue at all. Everything is just perfect. They know what is best, and they are never wrong.
Re: In Dubai you are never not on a camera
Are you permitted to cover your face in public?
How many of those were in error?
" have used LFR to make 580 arrests "
So: numbers, please. How many false positives?
(apart from it being messed up it doesn't work reliably enough and at least over here does not deterr criminials)
Re: How many of those were in error?
It's not the police's fault if those arrested don't get convicted.
Re: How many of those were in error?
And that was just among the pensioners at one pro Palestinian rally.
Every time I think it can't get worse
Something like this pops up.
I hate being wrong.
Move along people, No, this has absolutely nothing to do with digital ID cards.
It's for your safety, think of the children, stop the perverts/criminals/boat-gangs.. did I miss any knee-jerk justifications.