Transport for London is trialling facial recognition at stations in an attempt to identify and catch ‘high harm’ offenders.

Live facial recognition cameras will be deployed at key spots around the city, switching on at Victoria station from today (Tuesday, August 11).

The cameras feed live images back to a database, comparing faces to a police watchlist, looking for people wanted for crimes such as sexual offences, robbery and knife crime.

TfL said British Transport Police (BTP) that images of people who are not a match to the watchlist will be ‘automatically and immediately deleted’.

The technology, which is also being rolled out by some supermarkets, has been criticised for errors and being ‘dystopian’.

Big Brother Watch questioned how effective the system is, saying this form of surveillance ‘treats the public like suspects’.

There will reportedly be ‘alternative routes’ and clear signage in the Tube stations to allow people to make ‘informed choices about passing through’.

Siwan Hayward, director of security, policing and enforcement at TfL, said: ‘Everyone should be able to travel without fear of harassment, intimidation or violence.

‘Tackling violence against women and girls and preventing sexual offending on our network remains a key priority.’

He continued: ‘Live facial recognition has the potential to be a powerful additional tool in helping police quickly identify those wanted for high-harm offences, including sexual offences, and supports early intervention and helps stop incidents before they happen.’

The software was initially trialled a decade ago at Notting Hill Carnival in 2016, officially being deployed in 2020.

It’s been reintroduced in a six-month trial of live facial recognition that started in February, which included an initial pilot phase at London Bridge.

After scanning more than 530,000 faces, according to the force’s deployment logs, there were zero true matches and no arrests made.

The system is said to have triggered a single false identification, which mirrors an issue that occured at Sainsbury’s in February.

A man was ejected from his local store in Elephant and Castle after being identified as an offender by the facial recognition software, Facewatch.

Warren Rajah was told to abandon his shopping and was escorted outside after what Sainsbury’s called a ‘human error’.

‘We have been in contact with Mr Rajah to sincerely apologise for his experience in our Elephant and Castle store,’ a spokesperson said. ‘This was not an issue with the facial recognition technology in use but a case of the wrong person being approached in store.’

Rajah responded that staff we insuffienctly trained as the software relies on human interpretation.

He added: ‘Am I supposed to walk around fearful that I might be misidentified as a criminal? Imagine how mentally debilitating this could be to someone vulnerable, after that kind of public humiliation.’

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, agreed and said: ‘This is a disturbing and dystopian expansion of live facial recognition that will capture millions of innocent people’s faces.

‘Far from reserving this for exceptional cases, British police are now using live facial recognition routinely in the sort of pervasive way you might expect in China but not in a democracy.’

Ch Supt Chris Casey, BTP’s senior officer responsible for the project, said: ‘This marks an important new stage in our trial of LFR technology.

‘Expanding deployments into London Underground stations will help us assess the technology in a different transport environment while continuing to refine how it is used across the railway network.’

The deployments are said to be ‘intelligence-led’, focusing on wanted people including those breading bail.

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