Skip to content

Infant Biometric Recording with Infant.ID Technology: Details of Bebê ID Project Unveiled

High-resolution biometric scanning technology, certified by NIST, offers palm and foot fingerprint capturing for infants at over 5,000 dots per inch (dpi). This tech is utilized in more than 5,000 locations.

High-resolution biometric scanning technology, certified by NIST, is now available for capturing...
High-resolution biometric scanning technology, certified by NIST, is now available for capturing palm and foot fingerprints of newborns at over 5,000 dots per inch.

Infant Biometric Recording with Infant.ID Technology: Details of Bebê ID Project Unveiled

UK Police Seek Additional Funding to Advance Facial Recognition Technology Use

In a bid to modernize policing and tackle evolving criminal threats, the UK police have asked for increased funding to expand the use of facial recognition technology. This request stems from a multitude of factors including operational pressures, technological ambition, and the need for an overhaul in the face of a complex security landscape.

Justification for Enhanced Funding and Wider Adoption of Facial Recognition

  1. Financial Strain and Outdated Resources
  2. Budget constraints and a decade of minimal capital investment have left police forces frequently prioritizing maintenance of aging systems over innovation.
  3. Most technology budgets are drained by maintaining existing systems, hindering the adoption of novel tools.
  4. Time-Saving Measures
  5. Investment in digital technology, such as facial recognition, is projected to free up an estimated 41,000 hours of police time daily in England and Wales. This would enable officers to focus more on crime prevention.
  6. Live facial recognition has exhibited practical value, contributing to an average of 60 arrests per month in 2024.
  7. Evolving Criminal Landscape
  8. Police forces face a growing criminal portfolio, dealing with emerging crimes like cybercrime and organized crime. They must balance their focus between high-harm crimes (sexual violence, knife crime, drug trafficking) and broader criminal networks that underpin these acts.
  9. New powers and technologies are necessary to combat burgeoning threats, including organized crime on high streets and intricate money laundering networks.
  10. Government Priorities and Needs
  11. The government's "Safer Streets" mission encompasses the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee and the addition of 13,000 police and support officers, all requiring substantial funding.
  12. There is a recognized need for sustainable, long-term financial support to enable policing to confront both current and future challenges.

Potential Outcomes of Additional Funding and Wider Facial Recognition Adoption

  1. Operational Efficiency and Success
  2. Cutting-edge technologies like facial recognition can expedite investigations, improve arrest rates, and enable predictive analytics to identify potentially hazardous areas.
  3. A new national digital forensics platform and a Data and Analytics Office could boost data quality and sharing, leading to smarter policing.
  4. Ethical, Privacy, and Oversight Issues
  5. The wider deployment of facial recognition and AI raises significant privacy and civil liberties concerns.
  6. The forthcoming National Policing Digital Strategy 2025-2030 calls for robust governance and ethics frameworks to manage these technologies, acknowledging the need for careful stewardship to minimize potential misuse or public backlash.
  7. Risks of Neglect in Other Areas
  8. Even with increased funding, the prioritization of certain crimes might lead to under-resourcing of other sectors, such as investigations into criminal networks that foster high-harm crimes.
  9. This could unintentionally enable organized crime groups to operate with reduced risk.
  10. Financial and Organizational Stability
  11. Ensuring funding sources are sustainable and tied to measurable productivity goals is paramount, as underscored by the National Audit Office’s ongoing work.
  12. The government is taking a more active role in supporting police leaders and driving reforms to achieve long-term efficiency.

In sum, increased funding and the wider adoption of facial recognition are driven by the need to modernize policing, confront emerging threats, and boost operational efficiency. However, these moves come with considerable implications for privacy, governance, and the judicious allocation of resources.

  1. To achieve operational efficiency, the UK police are advocating for increased funding and wider adoption of facial recognition technology, a sophisticated AI-driven solution, to expedite investigations, improve arrest rates, and enable predictive analytics and smarter policing.
  2. The expansion of facial recognition technology use by the UK police is predicated on the recognition of significant privacy and civil liberties concerns, necessitating the development of robust governance and ethics frameworks to manage these technologies and minimize potential misuse or public backlash.

Read also:

    Latest