I want to reiterate that this is a trial of the technology to assess how it performs in a railway setting. The initiative follows a significant amount of research and planning, and forms part of BTP's commitment to using innovative technology to make the railways a hostile place for individuals wanted for serious criminal offences, helping us keep the public safe.
I was misidentified by a live facial recognition system while coming home from a community patrol in Croydon. Police officers told me I was a wanted man and demanded my fingerprints even though I'd done nothing wrong. What happened to me was shocking and unfair.
A judicial review against the Metropolitan Police's use of live facial recognition (LFR) will argue the force is unlawfully deploying the technology across London, without effective safeguards or constraints in place to protect people's human rights from invasive biometric surveillance.
Sir Mark Rowley said that LFR hadn't yet been used at any protest, including at Saturday's Unite The Kingdom march in London organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, "because of what may be sensed about it having a chilling effect". He said: "The last protest from the same organisers as this one didn't have any trouble of any significance so the suggestion that every protest organised by these organisers has trouble is not actually accurate."