Live facial recognition cameras to be used by WA Police in Australian first

Western Australia will become the first place in the country where police will trial real-time facial recognition cameras, scanning crowds for people wanted by police, registered child sex offenders and missing persons.

The cameras, which will be deployed in a marked police van outside major events or in crowded areas, will scan faces to be cross referenced with a database of targets.

Police Commissioner Col Blanch said that database will contain about 4,000 people with outstanding arrest warrants and thousands of registered child sex offenders, as well as people reported missing.

The commissioner said signs alerting the public to the cameras would be clearly visible.

"This is not about mass surveillance,"

he said.

"This is about specifying those in our community who are wanted by police."

If the technology detects a match, the image will be retained and an alert sent to nearby officers to confirm the person's identity.

'Increased freedoms and privacy'

Commissioner Blanch said while his force had used facial recognition technology on already obtained footage for more than a decade, it was the first time in Australia police had used live feeds for almost-instant facial detection.

He sought to quell concerns about potential breaches of privacy.

"CCTV cameras are everywhere. They are owned by private businesses, local councils, they are around the world ... and who are they owned by, no-one would know," he said.

"They capture information of everyone, they store pictures of everyone — for how long, I don't know.

"This technology here pixelates those who are not on the list, does not store information, deletes it immediately.

"This is actually a way that we can increase the freedoms and the privacy of our community. This is less of an intrusive capability than a standard CCTV camera."

While this trial only includes one marked van, he did not rule out covert technology being used in the future, pointing to the force’s existing use of facial recognition systems.

"We already use facial recognition in a capacity that is not overt. We already do that," the commissioner said.

He said he wanted to the community to feel comfortable with the technology.

"We want the conversation and that debate to continue," the commissioner said.

"This is how we intend to keep our community safe. Let's have that conversation first before we decide to go any further."

Questions over protests

Commission Blanch said it was not his "intent" for the technology to be used at protests "except if we have intelligence that there is a significant risk of someone seeking to do harm".

But he said that could be the case at the upcoming Land Forces defence expo, which Perth will host in October, if police had intelligence of a threat to that event.

The event attracted ugly protests in Melbourne two years ago, with police saying they were pelted with rocks, cans and horse manure.

Defence Industries Minister Paul Papalia said he expected the defence expo to attract around 20,000 attendees, including senior military officials from around the world.

Protesters accused police of using excessive force, including capsicum spray and stun grenades.

More police powers

The state government yesterday introduced a bill into parliament to empower police to search people and vehicles without the need to suspect an offence was being, or was about to be, committed within an area around the event.

The police commissioner would also be empowered to create a list of people who would be banned from the area, although they would not be notified of that fact in advance.

"We hope we get through Land Forces without any problems whatsoever and not using a single power in that act, because ordinarily everyone in Western Australia has been extremely well behaved when we have these protests," Commissioner Blanch said.

"What we don't want is people coming from other jurisdictions thinking that they can behave the way they have over in Victoria."

The commissioner said police had intelligence that interstate protesters were planning to attend.

He said he was unable to say how much the live facial recognition technology would cost, or which company was involved, because it was only being trialled.