Met Police 'pay people £50' to walk through London to test facial recognition technology

A Met Police project to test facial recognition technology has been taking place in London over the last two days. The project – titled ‘Police Facial Recognition Research' – has been running in and around Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

This is according to a job advert posted on Mandy, which states the participants will be taking facial photographs, videos, and selfies with a variety of cameras to help conjure up data for “analysis of the performance of face recognition systems” and “differences in performance due to demographics”.

It read: “We are looking for a huge crowd of people. This is an exercise on behalf of the Police, scientific research to test the capability of the cameras to recognise people's faces. The results of the study will help the Metropolitan Police Service fulfil their Public Sector Equality Duties regarding the uses of facial recognition.”

According to the advert, the results of the project will help the force meet its Public Sector Equality Duties regarding the uses of facial recognition. According to Westminster police on Twitter, this technology is “used to prevent crime and find wanted criminals”.

The force encouraged application from actors aged between 18 and 74 who would wear casual clothing. For around three hours work, participants would earn £50.

However, there has been an outcry from some who believe that the use of the technology – in a trial setting or not – is invasive and should not be allowed. That includes the organisation ‘Big Brother Watch', who sent members to the project to protest. They said: “Police using Orwellian Live Facial Recognition outside #OxfordCircus, London TODAY.

“Our team is heading to the deployment now & we need as many people on the ground as possible to hold placards, hand out our flyers, & to collect evidence of intensive surveillance.”

The research took place yesterday (July 13) and today (July 14), and seemingly on July 6 and 7 last week, too. There were several time slots throughout the day, with participants being offered £50 for three hours of work. Participants were also asked to sign a consent form that they were happy for the images of their face to be stored by the National Physical Laboratory.

A section of the Met Police website on facial recognition reads: “Facial Recognition (FR) technology can be used in a number of ways by the Met, including to prevent and detect crime, find wanted criminals, safeguard vulnerable people, and to protect people from harm – all to keep the people we serve safe.”