British police are preparing to use controversial facial recognition technology to find thousands of missing people in the first major operation of its kind in the UK. The Home Office has approached police forces in Kent, the West Midlands as well as British Transport police to test the technology, which uses CCTV cameras to scans the faces of members of the public and match them against a database in real time. Around 180,000 people, including one in 200 children, are reported missing every year, according to data from the National Crime Agency. Details of the plans emerged in a letter from a Home Office minister to Ellie Reeves MP following a request made on behalf of a constituent, James Mullarkey. Mr Mullarkey, a privacy campaigner, published the letter, dated June 14, on Twitter. He is critical of the use of facial recognition technology in the UK. In the letter, Nick Hurd, minister of state for policing, said: "We know that LFR [live facial recognition] trials are intended to commence to find missing and vulnerable persons, which is a collaboration between the Home Office and police forces." The Home Office has clarified that it plans to use the facial recognition retrospectively, rather than live, in missing or vulnerable persons cases where there is a risk of harm. Police are expected to use the public CCTV network of thousands of cameras in the UK to identify vulnerable people who have been reported as missing. Their faces will be matched against a database of photographs.
Police in the UK are set to use facial recognition to find missing people. Photograph: While the Home Secretary Sajid Javid's approval of facial recognition has proved controversial with privacy groups, the latest announcement would not apply to 'live' networks, but only to old footage to assist with ongoing investigations where there is a risk of harm.