The writer served more than 30 years with the Metropolitan Police and policed Notting Hill carnival across several decades, rising to senior operational command. The writer encountered anti-police violence in the 1970s and career controversy in the 2000s related to drug policy and leadership in Brixton. Concerns persist about Met culture and disproportionate use of stop-and-search against Black people. The writer supports targeted use of live facial recognition (LFR) at large events to identify offenders en route and protect attendees. Past misidentification issues for Black people and women have been addressed at Met settings, and false positives now run about one in 33,000.
Millions of people attend Notting Hill carnival every year and succeed in their sole aim of having a wonderful time, but having so many people in such a small area attracts a tiny minority intent on exploiting the situation to commit crime, including violence and sexual offences. LFR provides a non-discriminatory way of identifying some of those offenders on their way to the event with zero impact on anyone else.
Past failings, which meant live facial recognition was more likely to misidentify black people and women, have been eradicated at the settings used by the Met, and it would be self-defeating if the force used this technology in any other way; false positives are currently running at one in 33,000 for everyone. The systems sees people's faces, compares them with specific police databases of facial images, and immediately discards
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