Live facial recognition vans to be used at Manchester Christmas Markets
The festivities begin tomorrow - and police hope their new technology will help catch criminals visiting the city
Greater Manchester Police will be using new live facial recognition vans to catch criminals visiting the Manchester Christmas Markets when they open tomorrow (7 November).
The vans were used on Monday at Piccadilly Gardens, leading to two arrests.
A 40-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being wanted for possession of an offensive weapon, and a second male, 36, was arrested on suspicion of being wanted for criminal damage with one of his bail conditions not to enter Piccadilly Gardens.
Both men were identified and arrested after being uploaded to a watchlist before the deployment.
Four other arrests were made by officers supporting the operation with two on suspicion of possession of drugs, one for failing to appear at court and one on suspicion of a public order offence.
Two people were also charged following deployments in Bolton town centre last week.
Chief Inspector Michael Tachauer said: "We know there is a justifiable focus on the Gardens because of ASB, crime, disorder and violence, so we're doing our best to try and get on top of that for the community.
"We are committed to using any kind of tactic within GMP's arsenal that we can deploy in order to confront that criminality.
"We're anticipating a greater footfall in the city, as we experience every year, so we're really keen to make sure we've got facial recognition out and about as much as possible, so that people who are wanted for offences, who we know are coming into the city to commit crime, are deterred and are brought to justice."
The cameras will focus on a specific area or crowd and detect faces compared to a pre-prepared watchlist with an alert issued immediately if there is a match.
The images and biometric data of those who don’t cause an alert are automatically and immediately deleted.
The vans will be back in Piccadilly Gardens tomorrow (7 November).