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Two people have been arrested thanks to our Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology in Chelmsford.
Our two LFR vans were deployed in the city centre on Friday 4 October was focussing on people wanted in connection with offences such as violent crime and shoplifting.
There were six positive alerts with two women arrested – one in connection with an assault and the other in connection the an investigation into shoplifting.
Five other people were also arrested by officers during the deployment, but not as a result of being identified by the LFR vans.
The three men and two women were all arrested on suspicion of theft and shoplifting related offences.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Hughes said:
“This was our thirteenth deployment of the LFR vans and their use has now led to 23 arrests.
“It has proved really effective at finding people wanted in connection with investigations and ensuring we can get suspects into custody, and help progress investigations.
“This was another really positive deployment with arrests made but also providing a fantastic opportunity to speak to the public and show them how the technology works.”
DCI Hughes added:
“The technology utilises CCTV camera feeds to LFR software to scan faces against a predetermined database or ‘watch list’ of people of interest.
“The scanning of an image takes less than a second. The data/image of those not on the watchlist is automatically and immediately deleted and not stored.
“When there is a positive match, appropriate action will be taken by officers on the ground to confirm ID and then assess what the next action is to be taken.”
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