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Facial Recognition Police Vans

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[#13533110]

 I've not really thought through the implications of these but I have initial mixed feelings - interested in hearing different takes.  

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7p2xnlyzzo


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 3:38 pm
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I've nothing to hide so doesn't bother me. 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 3:48 pm
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I've nothing to hide so doesn't bother me. 

Eh. One doesn't logically follow from the other.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 3:54 pm
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Or do you mean you don't have a face, in which case apologies and condolences.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 3:55 pm
roger_mellie reacted
 JAG
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It's like every new technology for detecting 'wrong-doing'

Some will always be falsely accused - the number will be higher during the implementation phase and early development phase. Hopefully the technology will improve rapidly.

Just hope that, if you are one of the falsely accused, you have other evidence that provides an alibi :o)

I guess that all means I'm OK with it and I'm hoping I don't get into trouble while they are implementing this 🤣 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:06 pm
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It's not something I'm bothered by, so don't worry about it - OP was asking of opinions. It's a good thing if this enables efficient use of police resources to pull up the 'baddies'. Then again, they'd run out of prison space if they caught everyone.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:07 pm
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 It's a good thing if this enables efficient use of police resources to pull up the 'baddies'

It always makes me wonder what sort of baddies are they randomly hoping to find in a crowd of people going about their normal business? International supervillains? Carlos The Jackal? Or just your normal, everyday fraudsters, wife beaters and recidivist speeders...


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:15 pm
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The link suggests shoplifters could be a use case. There's some bonkers statistic about how few people carry out the vast majority of shoplifting, and most are already known to the police. I guess they're hoping to deter these people?

Put me in the "concerned" camp... especially if this ends up being used for protestors and immigrants.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:34 pm
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Posted by: IdleJon

Or just your normal, everyday fraudsters, wife beaters and recidivist speeders...

I don't think wife beaters are 'normal' or 'everday'. 

I suggest a facial recognition camera would do a good job in getting them locked up.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:36 pm
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Posted by: kelvin

The link suggests shoplifters could be a use case....

Put me in the "concerned" camp...

Anything you want to tell us?


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:41 pm
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I don't think wife beaters are 'normal' or 'everday'. 

I'd disagree. There will be people on here who abuse their partners. You'll know people, friends, colleagues, etc who are abusers or victims. I've known more abuse victims through my life than stabbing victims, and that was sort of my point, without meaning to argue specifics - does the facial recognition van make the world a safer, better place? Does it help prevent male violence and rape, or is it just toys for the boys again*? I'm genuinely interested how they use it.

 

* a phrase used by Baroness Casey, iirc, to describe funding which was always available for weapons for armed units when compared to massively underfunded rape investigations.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:45 pm
 IHN
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Pfft, you'll never take me alive, copper

image.png


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:51 pm
JAG, roger_mellie, daviek and 3 people reacted
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Just a thought, are they being used in a genuine search for skallies and wrong-uns OR are they compiling a data-base of everyday regular peeps? If it’s the latter than I’d personally find that both intrusive and worrying; in the same vein as compulsory DNA collection. Yes, yes I know “if you ain’t done nuffink wrong blah, blah blah’ but that’s my thirty shillings worth.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:56 pm
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Posted by: olddog

 I've not really thought through the implications of these but I have initial mixed feelings - interested in hearing different takes. 

 

Not sure why you're particularly worried.

 

It's a camera that says "I think this is Stealy McGrabber", and does it quicker than the average copper can.

 

I'm about as worried as I am about those average speed detector things, TBH.

 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 4:59 pm
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The link suggests shoplifters could be a use case

They had one in my town yesterday and police social media posts suggested they were mainly nabbing people who were banned from the area due to prolific thieving. Possibly along with people who had broken remand.

Can see it also being used to spot football hooligans on match day, but share the concerns about targeting protesters etc


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 5:03 pm
kelvin reacted
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For me it's like ANPR for people rather than cars. ANPR is used to identify vehicles that either shouldn't be on the road (tax and mot etc) or where the vehicle is linked to some sort of criminal activity (stolen, cloned plates, dealing drugs etc). If facial recognition usage is similar then it seems like a way for a smaller police force to remain effective(*). So far so good, but there's a lot of potential for misuse, especially with the current trajectory of UK politics.

* - But not as effective as one that is adequately funded, staffed and trained.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 5:28 pm
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Kanye West Cardboard Face Mask - Tesco Groceries

 

Expect it to be an offence to try and circumvent the system in a year or less


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 5:33 pm
Watty reacted
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Posted by: chakaping

 Possibly along with people who had broken remand.

 

 

What does this mean please ?

 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 5:55 pm
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Posted by: kelvin

Put me in the "concerned" camp... especially if this ends up being used for protestors and immigrants.

As ever, would be fine if its used for "proper" criminals, but mission creep and political desperation make me think that's a naive hope


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 6:01 pm
kelvin, leffeboy, dyna-ti and 1 people reacted
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I don't like it.

I see there is a use case - but at the same time I also see how it could become an issue.

There are examples of people who have never even been into a shop before being asked to leave due to being identified as shoplifters through the facial recognition network. Now take that an apply it to an individual who cameras identify as a person of interest to the police. 

Then you need to prove you are not that person of interest. Which takes us into ID card territory.

The scope for this technology to be used incorrectly is high - mission creep as mentioned above.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 6:13 pm
dudeofdoom and leffeboy reacted
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These are in Leeds I think; given the likely place they’ll be deployed I might go and have a nosey tomorrow.

The obvious flaw to me is that if you’re a bad’un you might risk walking past a policeman or van on the street as you’re relying on them recognising you from a long mental list of bad’uns. If you’re a bad’un and you see a police van with an enormous plethora of cameras sticking out the top of it the you’ll surely not take the chance and just stay away. That of course assumes you spot it before it spots you; it might be able to spot you at 1000yds in which case fair enough, but if not it is as best a deterrent and a testing of technology for future more stealthy deployments. 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 6:18 pm
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especially if this ends up being used for protestors

+1

 

Enough had been done already to try and limit protesters.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 6:23 pm
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The balaclava'd scrotes will love going past those on the back wheels of their Sur-ons. Think of the clicks they'll get. Kinda needs bodies on the ground and some political backbone to make it work. Makes it easy to nick a bunch of middle class people persistently holding up signs, though. 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 6:29 pm
roger_mellie reacted
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especially if this ends up being used for protestors and immigrants

You think it isn't already? 😆

We'll all be part of the database sooner or later.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 8:13 pm
Watty reacted
 Roly
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My understanding is that for a chosen day they could be looking for people who are wanted on a recall to prison, or sex offenders with conditons eg not to be with children etc. People that walk past the van get seen by the camera, their face is compared to the list of faces, and if there's a match they get stopped nearby and things get checked. The face scans that don't match get deleted.

Remember that your phone is usually pinging away with where you are all the time anyway, tin foil wearers of Freedom City.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 8:32 pm
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I'd be surprised if they have anything inside them.

Reminds me of the old Tv detector vans.

Look! we're policing! just look at how much we are policing and feel safe in the streets as you consume.

 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 10:41 pm
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I really don't like this.  If you add it in to all payments going electronic then the idea of being closed down because someone has misidentified you is horrible.  It would be lovely if you could just then rock up to a police station and they would say sorry, press a button and it would all go away but we know it doesn't work that way.   I'm off to practice my facial recognition makeup

 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 10:52 pm
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are they compiling a data-base of everyday regular peeps?

Hate to to tell you this bit they already have that data base. Came back into Manchester airport three weeks ago and they were testing new immigration systems. They are the same as the old ones except you dont scan your passport anymore. The camera just scans your face, recognises you and lets you through. Very few people were getting rejected suggesting most of us were already in the system.


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 11:36 pm
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Who is running the back office system that stores all the data. AWS, Palantir, Grok, and how is it controlled.

I get facial recognition is cool at one level (getting on BA flight at JFK), but blanket use in the high street.....how do we know how it's being administered 


 
Posted : 11/11/2025 11:52 pm
seriousrikk and Cletus reacted
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I can understand the I’ve got nothing to hide so who cares sentiment but things like this send a chill down my spine. We’re already the most surveilled people who have ever lived, how much more will be enough?

Maybe we should force people to have a gopro on 24/7 and have AI monitor it, crime could be reduced to near zero. If you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing to fear. The logic seems the same to me.  


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 12:55 am
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Lots of research indicating racial bias in facial recognition, so if you're white, you have a little less to worry about.


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 1:56 am
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Posted by: fossy

I've nothing to hide so doesn't bother me.

You might not have, but these systems are notoriously bad at actually recognising faces, so it’s not impossible that you might get picked up because you bear an uncanny resemblance to someone who is wanted for serious crimes.


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 3:42 am
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Posted by: thepurist

For me it's like ANPR for people rather than cars. ANPR is used to identify vehicles that either shouldn't be on the road (tax and mot etc) or where the vehicle is linked to some sort of criminal activity (stolen, cloned plates, dealing drugs etc).

Except car registration plates are generally very clear and easy to read, because they’re designed to be. Humans, on the other hand, come in a bewildering variety of shapes, sizes, colours and facial features, which can fool camera systems, especially if the weather is colder and people are wearing hats, scarves, hoods, etc. Add to that glasses and sunglasses if the weather is bright. 
Maybe I should get a V for Vendetta mask, or start wearing my Rorschach mask from Watchmen…


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 3:51 am
 mert
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Posted by: kelvin

especially if this ends up being used for protestors and immigrants.

It already is in some countries, protestors at least. I wouldn't think it'll be long before it's fully implemented by one of the orange shitgibbons hangers on, Borgino or Noem at a guess.

Posted by: sirromj

Lots of research indicating racial bias in facial recognition, so if you're white, you have a little less to worry about.

Like one of the systems developed in the US had something like a 90% accuracy rating with white and i think Hispanic faces and approaching 15% (wow, well done) with anyone darker, which is about 75% of the global population.

They tested almost exclusively on white faces.

The whole thing sort of reminds me of the Judge Dredd story "Blobs" where eventually no one could be recognised (plastic surgery) so they all had to have serial numbers tattooed on their foreheads...


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 9:53 am
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Like ANPR, facial recognition has been around for a while. The first arrest credited to ANPR was in 1981, would you believe

It already is in some countries, protestors at least. I wouldn't think it'll be long before it's fully implemented by one of the orange shitgibbons hangers on, Borgino or Noem at a guess.

Live Facial Recognition has been used in the UK for a few years. Croydon in S.London became the first site in a political democracy for fixed Facial Recognition cameras in March.

It isn't subject to specific law but a mix of other legislation and policy:

Force policy documents should also provide that the composition of watchlists:
is based on the intelligence case
is reviewed before each deployment, to ensure that all images meet the necessity and proportionality criteria for inclusion
is not excessive for the purpose of the LFR deployment https://www.college.police.uk/app/live-facial-recognition

I guess that it can be used for some categories of protester who are predicated towards criminal actions. The important proviso is that you should only use a specific watchlist for a specific deployment. The watchlist for longer deployments must be regularly reviewed, e.g. during a weekend event.

The bottom line. If you're not a shoplifter and it's on anti-shoplifter deployment then it won't ping you (unless you have an identical twin who is a shoplifter)

Like one of the systems developed in the US had something like a 90% accuracy rating with white and i think Hispanic faces and approaching 15% (wow, well done) with anyone darker, which is about 75% of the global population.

Accuracy was tested in the UK in 2023 for systems used by S.Wales Police and the Met (and probably since then)

Accuracy depends on the algorithm used but is improving all the time. 
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) tested the algorithms South Wales Police (SWP) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) have been using.
At the settings they use the NPL found that for: 
LFR (Live Facial Recognition) - there were no statistically significant differences in performance based on gender or ethnicity in the way they use it. In practice, at the time of publication, there have been no false alerts this year.
RFR (Retrospective Facial Recognition - post incident scanning of images with AI) and OIFR (Operator Initiated Facial Recognition - Google lens type app) - 100% accuracy in identifying a correct match with no false matches.  
https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/10/29/police-use-of-facial-recognition-factsheet/


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 11:34 am
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The balaclava'd scrotes will love going past those on the back wheels of their Sur-ons.

Reminds me of the urban myth about someone stealing or cloning the plates off a camera van & then speeding past said van numerous times 😀

 


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 11:43 am
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And yet they're not interested in CCTV from train stations etc of scrotes nicking bikes......


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 12:40 pm
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dunno why they bother, its not like theres prison places / court dates for whoever this is supposed to catch


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 12:44 pm
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I dont know where i stand on this. One side of me things its too controlling and the other thinks its great for reducing crime.

 

I dont think we have the room to punish everyone but its the threat of punishment that will stop people from committing crimes. 

 

I do think we need to stop the nutters with balaclavas prancing around everywhere. everyone wearing a balaclava should be stopped and searched imo. 😉


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 1:11 pm
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I do think we need to stop the nutters with balaclavas prancing around everywhere. everyone wearing a balaclava should be stopped and searched imo. 😉

Reminds me of a film I saw a long time ago, about hunt saboteurs. One of the huntsmen complained to the police about a sab wearing a balaclava. The policeman wandered over and asked why he was wearing it and got the reply, 'Because it's cold.' End of conversation. As far as I'm aware balaclavas aren't illegal yet.

the other thinks its great for reducing crime.

Is it? In all the stuff linked above about accuracy of recognition, etc, I don't see any links to reduction in shoplifting or anti-social behaviour. We live in a society where people walk into Greggs, with no facial covering, grab an armful of stuff and walk straight back out. And then do it again the next day because there is no consequence. How does this van stop things like that?


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 1:31 pm
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well considering its fairly accurate (unless your black) are we saying thats its failure to reduce crime is because most people committing crime are black? ooooh  idlejon wash your mouth out with soap! 🙂

 

to me it appears that people may be committing more crimes or maybe im just recognising it more as i get older and more grumpy? but i think its is probably because there appears to be little punishment, ability to catch people, consequence for people if caught? coupled with a glorifying of acts of utter stupidity on things like youtube. 

We cant put more bobbies on the beat but we can gather data and pull this together to create a most likely place to be for a criminal? certanally for high profile criminals (like murder / rape etc) where they pose an imediate danger to the public i would much rather they be put behind bars as soon as possible.

 


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 2:04 pm
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We live in a society where people walk into Greggs, with no facial covering, grab an armful of stuff and walk straight back out

There's an argument for stores and petrol stations to change their premises.

The tech to pay in advance for fuel, for example, has existed for decades.

Display stock behind the counter. Larger stores already have dedicated security staff 

Why should public services sort the big chains security problems out? No payment, no goods


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 2:24 pm
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A few weeks back, I heard about these being used to monitor crowds at a stadium event (football, IIRC).

My automatic reaction is to not like it.

But then I thought, if there were police ...ummm... policing the crowd, and one spotted someone he knew was banned from the stadium for previous violence, I'd expect that policeperson to act on that, not just let them walk in anyway. And these cameras do the same, only probably much better. Since I thought of it that way, find it hard to worry about this.


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 10:15 pm
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Posted by: timba

There's an argument for stores and petrol stations to change their premises.

The tech to pay in advance for fuel, for example, has existed for decades.

Display stock behind the counter. Larger stores already have dedicated security staff 

I'd much rather live in a world where people don't commit crime because they know and fear the consequences rather than one where we're all treated as potential criminals.


 
Posted : 12/11/2025 10:57 pm
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Posted by: fossy

I've nothing to hide so doesn't bother me

What could go wrong? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxg8v74d8jo


 
Posted : 13/11/2025 7:34 am
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