Met police using facial recognition to catch 'most frequent' shoplifters in London

In combating London’s most prolific shoplifters, the Metropolitan police in Britain employs facial recognition technology to compare CCTV images with mugshots. Last month, the Metropolitan Police requested photos of the 30 most frequent unidentified offenders from the capital’s 12 major retailers. Within days, they successfully identified 149 individuals. Some of these individuals have ties to significant crimes, although all had prior arrests for various offenses including drug sales, sexual offenses, burglaries, assault, and gun possession. This initiative comes as a response to the increasing issue of shoplifting, driven by organized crime and rising living costs. Met Commissioner Mark Rowley referred to the results as “game-changing.” Retailers are increasingly pressuring the government to address retail crime, which is estimated to cost the UK economy £1.9 billion annually in lost revenue. Police Minister Chris Philp recently proposed adding passport photos to the police database to facilitate CCTV matching. Police officers will collaborate with retailers to build cases against the suspects identified from 302 CCTV stills and locate them. The Met’s facial recognition technology can match features against police mugshots in about a minute. Mark stated, “We’re collaborating with stores throughout the capital to identify and apprehend offenders in a way we’ve never done before. We’re pushing the boundaries and using innovation and technology to rapidly identify criminals. The outcomes thus far are revolutionary. This kind of facial recognition application has the potential to completely change how we look into and resolve crimes.” The Met reports that one out of every ten Londoners works in retail, with over 1,000 incidents of abuse and violence against employees reported annually. According to Sir Mark, the majority of the suspects are career criminals engaged in serious crimes, highlighting the effectiveness of facial recognition technology in this regard. “The spread of facial recognition technology into other policing domains worries us as well,” said Emmanuelle Andrews of the human rights organization Liberty. “Let’s be clear: we cannot rely on tech to solve deep societal problems. This is an unjustified expansion of state surveillance, and there are numerous alternatives.” While the retail pilot was initiated in late September, the Met had been using the software since August. The force claims that the facial recognition technology is 100% accurate when used retroactively, having undergone independent testing through the National Physical Laboratory. Approximately 50,000 shoplifting instances were recorded by the Metropolitan Police Department (Met) in the previous year, representing 5% to 10% of actual offenses.