Bedfordshire Police could begin using live facial recognition (LFR) as part of its Safer Streets Summer Initiative as early as this month, a meeting has heard.
Speaking at the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel on Tuesday (July 8), police and crime commissioner (PCC) John Tizard said the technology may be rolled out in July, but that August was “more likely” due to ongoing national approval delays.
“We are still waiting for the Home Office to agree the technology to be used across the country,” Mr Tizard said.
“But we have got officers trained and we have got vehicles.”
While operational decisions on LFR deployment rest with the chief constable, the PCC must give consent to its overall application.
The commissioner clarified that this does not extend to individual deployments.
“He won’t be coming to me to say, ‘We’re going to deploy it in Biggleswade town centre on this day,'” he added.
The PCC also addressed concerns about how the technology works and the safeguards in place.
“When the police use it, a photographic image is taken and matched against predetermined databases,” he said.
“If there is no match, the image is deleted immediately, in contrast with CCTV, where the image could be kept for some time.
“If there is a match, the system alerts a police officer to investigate further.”
Cllr Marc Frost (Conservative, Wixams and Wilstead) asked how success would be measured and what safeguards exist to prevent misuse.
The PCC said the force would follow national guidance and legal requirements.
“My plan is to set up an ethical panel that will not only have oversight of this area, but the whole use of AI across the police,” he said.
“It won’t be established in time for this use of the LFR, but it would have community representatives and independent members with expertise.”
The PCC stressed that the technology is intended to support officers, not replace them.
“This is a tool to enable policing — it is not a tool to replace policing,” he said.
“I have no personal qualms about moving forward with LFR in the short term because we’ll be using all the national guidance and we’ll be scrutinising it through the same mechanisms we use to scrutinise all police activity.”
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
