Seven more arrests in Southend from Live Facial Recognition
The vans were deployed in the High Street five times
Police have made another seven arrests thanks to their Live Facial Recognition technology, during deployments in Southend earlier this month.
The vans were deployed in the High Street five times, between 13 and 21 October, as part of their response to incidents of disorder in the city.
The arrests included those in connection with investigations into attempted murder, domestic violence, assault, drug supply and shoplifting.
It means since the first deployment of the technology at the Clacton Airshow, the LFR vans have led to 25 arrests.
Chief Inspector Dave Browning, District Commander for Southend, said: “This was a really successful deployment and led to suspects wanted in connection to serious offences being brought into custody.
“Live Facial Recognition has proved a valuable tool at locating and arresting suspects and is proving to be a good investment in our communities.
“And our use of it is part of our commitment here in Southend to stamp out serious violence and deal with those responsible.
“There have so far been no incorrect alerts in the 17 deployments we’ve had to date which also shows the technology is working really well.
“LFR is targeted to focus on specific people we’re trying to locate.
“The technology utilises CCTV camera feeds to LFR software to scan faces against a predetermined database or ‘watch list’ of people of interest.
“The scanning of an image takes less than a second. The data/image of those not on the watchlist is automatically and immediately deleted and not stored.
“When there is a positive match, appropriate action will be taken by officers on the ground to confirm ID and then assess what the next action is to be taken.”