Police Deploy Facial Recognition in Newbury

Big Brother is watching you in Newbury this Friday. Thames Valley Police Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans will be on Northbrook Street.

The police say the specialist LFR team will work alongside local officers to identify known suspects and "deter crime and help keep our communities safer for everyone".

The move comes as West Berkshire Council updated its privacy notices about CCTV. The council says it does not operate live facial recognition on its public CCTV network; it manages standard security and traffic cameras at places such as Newbury Wharf, Market Street offices and local car parks.

Thames Valley Police sometimes deploy mobile live facial recognition separately in the wider area. The cameras and back-office system are owned and operated by West Berkshire Council.

"We will only share data when it is necessary, or if the council is required to do so by law," said the council.

The council says it does not have planned, regular or scheduled sharing of CCTV footage.

"CCTV footage will only be processed internally by council staff who are authorised to do so and where there is a legitimate and lawful reason for their involvement.

"The images captured may be passed to law enforcement and other agencies involved in the prevention and detection of crime and public safety.

"We may also share the data if we are required to do so by law, for example by court order or to prevent fraud or other crime"

The council may share footage with third parties who show legitimate reasons for access; they must request information in writing and identify themselves.

"Where footage is shared with third parties, we will first redact the footage so that only relevant data is shared," it added.

"This is likely to include the blurring out of people and vehicles not involved in the investigation."

Thames Valley Police says live facial recognition is used as a precision crime-fighting tactic to locate people of interest.

"It helps us reduce violence and the risk of harm, prevent and detect crime, apprehend and prosecute offenders, protect the public, secure the administration of justice and maintain public confidence," said Thames Valley Police.

Facial recognition analyses key facial features to create a biometric template and compares it against a database to find possible matches. Thames Valley Police uses LFR to compare live camera feeds with a watch list and Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR) to compare still images after an incident against police databases.

Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter