Privacy fears as London police to begin using facial recognition technology
ABCLondon police say they will start using live facial recognition cameras in operational deployments, in a major advance for the controversial technology. Key points: London already has one of the highest concentrations of CCTV cameras in the world Rights groups say the technology threatens basic civil liberties Police have previously trialled facial recognition in the British capital The Metropolitan Police Service said it would use the cameras to automatically scan the faces of people passing through small targeted areas where intelligence suggested serious offenders would be found. London police said the facial recognition system, which runs on technology from Japan's NEC, looks for faces in crowds to see if they match any on "watchlists" of people wanted for serious and violent offences, including gun and knife crimes and child sexual exploitation. The Met is not the only British police force using facial recognition technology.