WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has backed a new police trial of live facial recognition cameras, saying there is always some risk with new technology but supporting its use if proper safeguards are in place.
“I’ve always had the view, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you haven’t got anything to worry about,” Zempilas said.
“And I’m not sure that it’s any different when it applies to this.”
The Australia-first trial will see real-time facial recognition cameras mounted on or near a marked WA Police van, scanning crowds and matching faces against an “alert list” of more than 4,000 people, including those with outstanding warrants, serious offence suspects, missing persons and individuals banned from certain areas.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the Overt Live Facial Recognition technology is designed to speed up identification and arrests, which under current systems can take hours.
“By then, that person has moved on,” he said.
He stressed that police officers will still make the final decision on any action taken. “We still rely on a human to make that assessment. We don’t automatically arrest people because there is a match,” he said.
Blanch said people not on the alert list will have their images automatically pixelated and that no data will be stored. He also pointed to UK use of similar systems, which he said have resulted in more than 2,000 arrests.
“The van has police written on the side. It has very clear signage about what it’s doing,” he said, adding: “This is not about mass surveillance.”
The trial will run for three to six months in locations including Northbridge and major events at Optus Stadium, with deployment based on risk assessments.
Source: 7News.
