Police to use facial recognition cameras at Notting Hill Carnival in new crackdown on violence
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Facial recognition cameras will be used at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival for the first time in an unprecedented crackdown on violence.
Visitors to Europe’s biggest street party will be scanned for wanted knife offenders, rapists, robbers and those suspected of serious violent crimes.
Scotland Yard wants to prevent a repeat of the bloodshed of recent years.
Festivities last year saw eight stabbings. One resulted in a murder and a second man was beaten and kicked to death.
Senior officers believe it will make ‘Carnival’ – behind only Rio de Janeiro’s celebration in terms of size – safer, but the plan has proved controversial with organisers and has raised civil liberty concerns.
Police will use mobile live facial recognition, or LFR, cameras around the perimeter of the three-mile parade route as part of a beefed-up security operation involving 7,000 officers every day over the Bank Holiday weekend from August 23-25.
There will also be knife arches and prevention orders to keep known thugs away.
It comes after an extra security budget of almost £1million was signed off last week following police warnings of a potential ‘mass casualty event’ caused by crushing.
Pictured: A man wielding a large zombie knife during an altercation at Notting Hill Carnival last year
Facial recognition cameras will be used at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival for the first time in an unprecedented crackdown on violence (file image)
Senior officers believe it will make ‘Carnival’ – behind only Rio de Janeiro’s celebration in terms of size – safer, but the plan has proved controversial with organisers and has raised civil liberty concerns (Pictured: Women at Notting Hill Carnival last year)
Rory Geoghegan, founder of the Public Safety Foundation, said: ‘Using live facial recognition at events like Notting Hill Carnival is common sense.
‘It helps police identify suspects wanted for serious crimes – people who should be in prison, not walking our streets or hiding in crowds.
‘The public rightly expects the police to use every lawful tool to keep us safe.’
About 2 million people a year attend the three-day West London carnival which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year.
But its reputation has been marred by violence.
Last year Cher Maximen, 32, was fatally stabbed with a zombie knife in front of her three-year-old daughter, when a gang fight broke out next to her.
And visiting chef Mussie Imnetu, 41, was beaten to death by a self-described ‘monster’ after a row outside a nearby restaurant.
The killers in both cases have been jailed for life.
Yesterday shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Live facial recognition now identifies wanted and dangerous people with no racial bias and with accuracy levels far in excess of manual identification.
Visitors to Europe’s biggest street party will be scanned for wanted knife offenders, rapists, robbers and those suspected of serious violent crimes (file image)
Last year, Cher Maximen (pictured), 32, was fatally stabbed with a zombie knife in front of her three-year-old daughter, when a gang fight broke out next to her
Shakeil Thibou (pictured) was jailed for 29 years after being found guilty of Ms Maximen’s murder
Police bodycam footage of Shakeil Thibou, who is seen holding a knife on the day Ms Maximen was stabbed
‘Last year eight people were stabbed and two people were tragically killed at the carnival.
‘Using facial recognition will help protect people from brutal attacks like these. It is right that police use every tactic at their disposal to catch criminals and protect the public.’
But a spokesman from the Notting Hill Carnival Trust said: ‘There are concerns within Carnival’s community that this technology is inaccurate and problematic.
‘We will work with the Metropolitan Police to seek assurances about its use.’
LFR cameras were tried out at the event in 2016 and 2017.
But the pilot was abandoned when questions were raised about the technology, then in its infancy, after the system wrongly flagged 102 people as potential suspects.
Yesterday, the Met’s Lindsey Chiswick, the national lead on facial recognition, said: ‘I can understand why there may be some concern. It was different technology back then. The accuracy rate was low.’
Since then, the technology has become far more accurate, with Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley hailing LFR as the most significant investigative advancement since DNA testing.
Pictured: Thousands of people on the streets during the second day of Notting Hill Carnival 2024
About 2 million people a year attend the three-day West London carnival which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year (Pictured: People at Notting Hill Carnival 2024)
Visiting chef Mussie Imnetu (pictured), 41, was beaten to death by a self-described ‘monster’ after a row outside a nearby restaurant
In February, charity worker Omar Wilson (pictured), 31, was convicted of Mr Imnetu’s murder
Graphic shows a breakdown of all the arrests police made at Notting Hill Carnival last year
‘There is no bias in the system and its accuracy has been tested independently through the National Physical Laboratory,’ Ms Chiswick said.
‘We are using it at Notting Hill Carnival to mitigate the risk to public safety.
‘A large number of people attend the carnival and it is very difficult to locate those that pose a public safety threat.
‘A single officer would have to memorise 10,000 odd suspects to pluck them out of a busy crowd.
‘This is a celebration we want the public to safely enjoy, this technology is an accurate tactic that helps us achieve that.’
She stressed that the cameras will be used on the approaches to and from the carnival rather than in the streets where the parades take place, allowing officers to safely intercept suspects before they reach the crowds.
Operational tests reveal that now just one in 33,000 scans result in a false alert.
Images of pedestrians walking past a LFR van are fed into a computer using biometric software to measure 28 facial features.
More than 7,000 officers were deployed each day at last year’s event, and there were more than 350 violent or sexual offences reported
Pictured: Police officers make an arrest at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London on August 26, 2024
Pictured: A Met Police officer takes a picture of revellers at Notting Hill Carnival last year
The data is then compared with a bespoke watchlist tailored to the carnival which will include around 11,000-15,000 suspects.
If a match is detected, an alert is sent to officers on the street who review it and decide if they should make an arrest after conducting further checks such as court orders.
If someone is not wanted by police, their biometrics are immediately deleted.
The cameras will also be on the lookout for missing people, including teenagers at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation.
Scotland Yard already deploys the tactic at crime hotspots, concerts and major sporting events.
Earlier this month, the Met announced that LFR had led to more than 1,000 arrests in London since 2024, resulting in 773 charges or cautions.
Rebecca Vincent, of civil liberties and privacy group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘We know that LFR is less accurate in scanning minority faces, so using it to target attendees of this beloved cultural celebration is particularly sinister.
‘This planned deployment is even more concerning given the continued lack of a legislative basis, leaving police to write their own rules with no accountability or oversight.’
Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward, in charge of carnival policing, said the ‘priority is to keep people safe, including preventing serious violence, including knife crime and violence against women and girls’.
