Met says technology will not be used to target protesters or activists, but campaigners say use is ‘extremely worrying’
The Metropolitan police has been accused of using the coronation to stage the biggest live facial recognition operation in British history.
The force said on Wednesday it intended to use the controversial technology, which scans faces and matches them against a list of people police want for alleged crimes and could identify convicted terrorists mingling in the crowds.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected on the streets on Saturday as King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey, after a procession through central London, with a massive security operation in place.
The announcement came as police were given new powers to crack down on protest, enacted into law by government just days before the high-profile ceremonial event.
Campaigners fear the face-scanning technology could be used against protesters, and that police have done so before.
The Met insisted the technology would not be used to quell lawful protest or target activists. But campaign groups do not believe them. Britain’s biggest force said: “It is not used to identify people who are linked to, or have been convicted of, being involved in protest activity.”
A leading academic expert said the number of people whose faces would be scanned would make it the largest deployment yet of live facial recognition (LFR) in the UK.
The scale of the planned use of LFR was unprecedented, said Pete Fussey, who advises the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner on human rights and ethnics and also led an independent review of the Met’s previous trials of LFR in 2018-19.
The largest previous LFR deployment was the 2017 Notting Hill carnival, when 100,000 faces were scanned.
Fussey said: “A surveillance deployment for the coronation would likely be the biggest live facial recognition operation ever conducted by the MPS, and probably the largest ever seen in Europe.
