Live video feeds can scan hundreds of faces a minute, instantly cross-referencing their profiles. But critics fear false alerts, algorithmic bias and ‘function creep’
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The arrest unfolded in real time, behind a bank of television microphones at Perth’s busy Mirrabooka bus station. As Western Australia’s police commissioner, Col Blanch, spoke to reporters on Thursday 2 July, a camera mounted on a nearby marked police van had been quietly panning across the interchange.
It can scan hundreds of faces a minute, instantly cross-referencing their profiles against a database of about 4,000 people: those with outstanding arrest warrants, registered child sexual abuse offenders and people reported missing.