Police announce use of Live Facial Recognition across Bedfordshire

Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology will be deployed in Bedford Town Centre on Friday 19 September, as Bedfordshire Police confirms the roll out of its new capability.

Pioneered by The Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police, the expansion of LFR was announced by the Home Office last month, with Bedfordshire Police announced as one of seven forces to receive the innovative technology.
Used by specially trained officers, the force said the technology will give officers an ‘unmatched advantage’ in their bid to locate and apprehend high-harm offenders who have evaded the police or courts.

LFR Strategic Lead Superintendent Ian Taylor, said: “We’re proud to announce the launch of Live Facial Recognition in Bedfordshire with our first deployment due to take place next week in Bedford.

“We know that the community still have a lot of questions about the use of advanced technology within policing and officers will be on hand to engage with the community and answer any queries they may have. LFR supports policing with an unmatched advantage to identify and detain wanted individuals, ensuring criminals are brought to justice swiftly and the communities of Bedfordshire are protected from crime and harm.

“While this capability is new to Bedfordshire, it has been used across policing and security services for a number of years. Adopting LFR at this stage provides an added layer of assurance as we have seen the technology improve greatly, even outperforming its anticipated accuracy and success rate.”

LFR works by comparing a live camera feed with biometric templates of images from a pre-established watchlist. Unique to each deployment, watchlists feature police images of persons of interest such as those wanted by the police or courts as well as those subject to bail conditions or specific court orders.

If a match is found, officers are notified via secure devices to review the match and ascertain whether it is a true match. Officers will then engage with the individual to conduct further assessments to confirm their identification before taking appropriate action.

The force will also deploy LFR as part of operations to safeguard vulnerable individuals such as locating high risk missing people, victims of crime or people that have been identified as potentially having crucial information relating to a serious crime investigation.

The Police and Crime Commissioner has set out a Memorandum of Understanding with Bedfordshire Police, establishing the principles and governance for the ethical, legal, and proportionate use of LFR technology. The MOU outlines the terms of oversight and accountability, ensuring that LFR deployments are subject to scrutiny by an Ethics Panel which will assess compliance and community impact.

Police and Crime Commissioner, John Tizard said: “I am pleased that Bedfordshire Police has taken delivery of two specialist Live Facial Recognition vans as part of a Home Office rollout of ten LFR vans across the country, equipping police officers with targeted, cutting-edge technology to catch high-harm criminals.

“In order to fulfil my duties and ensure effective governance of the use of LFR, I have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chief Constable, and I will be introducing an ethics panel for the wider use of AI in policing.”

With mutual aid support from South Wales Police, last year the force conducted its first deployment of LFR at the biennial Bedford River Festival event. With a watchlist of 550 people across the two days, the 360° cameras scanned over 415,000 faces which led to seven people being identified. No false alerts were recorded.

Tom Wootton said: “I welcome anything that brings extra resourcing to the police in Bedford Town Centre, to help keep our town safe and welcoming.
“I know that this technology was a huge success when it was trialled at the River Festival, with no false alerts recorded.

“This initiative is part of the wider work that Bedford Borough Council is doing with our police, not just in Bedford but across the Borough.”

Future deployment dates will be published here.