By: Leo Kelion
October 4, 2019
London’s Metropolitan Police Service says it does not have any records of the outcomes of a facial recognition tie-up with a private firm in the city.
Last month, it acknowledged it had shared people’s pictures with the managers of the city’s King’s Cross Estate development.
It had previously denied the alliance.
In a new report, the Met added that it had only shared seven images and did not believe there had been similar arrangements with other private bodies.
It said the pictures were of “persons who had been arrested and charged/cautioned/reprimanded or given a formal warning” and had been provided by Camden Borough Police. The aim, it added, had been to “prevent crime, to protect vulnerable members of the community or to support the safety strategy”.
But it admitted that it had no record of whether the estate manager’s surveillance camera system had ever made facial matches of those involved, nor whether any police action had been taken as a result.