Weapons found as police trial facial recognition

Kent Police said officers seized weapons and made two arrests during the force's first deployment of live facial recognition technology.

The system, which compares faces captured in public with a police watchlist, was used in Chatham on Friday and will be deployed again on Saturday.

Officers can use the equipment to identify wanted criminals, people subject to court orders and selected missing persons, but some have raised privacy concerns about its use.

Acting Supt Gary Woodward said that after a stop and search prompted by the technology, police had found "somebody with weapons" who probably would have passed undetected previously and two arrests were made within about an hour.

The force uses vehicles and equipment belonging to Essex Police for the deployments and says the software is "independently tested across different demographic groups" to ensure fairness.

Images captured are "deleted immediately" if not on Kent Police's watchlist and officers carry out further checks on positive matches before taking action, according to the force's website.

Sgt James Brewer from Essex Police, who was operating live facial recognition on Friday, said the technology gave him "a list of people that I might not ordinarily speak to".

He said it "can make mistakes" but there was "a human in the loop for that very reason".

Woodward said the technology was "nothing short of groundbreaking stuff" for Kent Police, comparing it to the impact CCTV had when it was first introduced.

"We'll be reviewing it as quickly as Monday to see how effective and impactive it has been," he told the BBC.

Charlie Whelton from Liberty, a campaign group calling for restrictions on live facial recognition, said expansion of the system had "come before any real regulation".

"We've not had that conversation as yet as to where we put the lines," he said.

Woodward said there was a "really strict set of guidelines" that officers had to comply with before deploying live facial recognition and needed a "clear reason" to be used.

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