AI cameras to scan for drug dealers at popular festival

By Lauren Wilkin

Police will use Live Facial Recognition cameras (LFR) to scan the crowd outside Boardmasters festival this weekend to stop drug dealers getting in.

LFR works by comparing a live camera feed to a pre-determined watchlist. This could include people who are wanted by the police in connection with criminal investigations.

Police have said this could help them stop and prevent known drug dealers from entering the festival.

Thousands of people are expected to travel through Newquay, Cornwall, towards the festival site above Watergate Bay.

The LFR van will be parked at Killacourt, Newquay, not far from the festival site itself - where police expect to see many festivalgoers over the course of the weekend.

The technology captures measurements of a person’s facial features and compares this mathematical representation to the known faces on the watchlist.

If you are not on the list, you cannot be matched. Images of people who are not on the watchlist are automatically and permanently deleted within seconds and Devon & Cornwall Police do not retain the data.

When the system suggests a possible match, trained officers on the ground will review it and decide whether to engage with the person.

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This technology has sparked controversy as groups criticize the level of surveillance and monitoring as unacceptable - including groups like Big Brother Watch.

They say: "You are tracked by your personal devices, monitored by social platforms, and targeted by invasive corporations. You may not know their names. But they know yours."

Assistant chief constable Matt Longman said: “We want to make the best use of technology and LFR provides officers with an additional tool to help locate wanted people more quickly, prevent crime and keep communities safe.

“People may have concerns about Live Facial Recognition technology, so we are committed to being open about where we are using it, when it is used and the safeguards that are in place to ensure it is used in a transparent and proportionate way.

“The van will be used across Devon and Cornwall to support policing operations.

"Members of the public will see a marked van and the area where it is operating will be clearly signposted so that people are aware of it.

"The human element is an important part of using LFR responsibly, so there will always be uniformed officers on the ground who will corroborate any possible matches before engaging with that person in an appropriate manner.”

Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez said: “The police need to use every tool available to find wanted criminals and take them off our streets.

"The use of live facial recognition has been tried and tested elsewhere, and I am pleased to see our communities here in Devon and Cornwall benefiting from this technology.”