Hello

I'm delighted that the Home Office have confirmed that two Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans will be provided to Sussex Police later this year.

LFR vans are police vehicles equipped with technology that scans faces in real-time against a watchlist of individuals wanted for serious offences. The technology has already been successfully used at the Coronation of HM King Charles III and the Notting Hill Carnival as well as at large sporting and music events, on high streets and in shopping centres.

A taskforce is in place across Sussex and Surrey Police to manage the launch of the vans this winter. The Metropolitan (Met) Police conducted ten trials of LFR technology between 2016 and 2018. Since then, South Wales Police, Northamptonshire Police and Essex Police have also successfully used LFR.

Last year the Met arrested 587 people through LFR and charged 424. Of these, 58 were registered sex offenders and 38 were in breach of conditions and charged.

So far this year, when used in South London, LFR led to 59 arrests - these included sex offenders in breach of conditions, offenders in breach of restraining orders and tag conditions, people wanted for theft, assault, burglary and possession of knives and ammunition.

The LFR vans will be used to keep communities safe and help police locate the most serious criminals. I will be particularly interested to see how the technology is applied to identify prolific shoplifters.

The new equipment means that criminals will have no place to hide. LFR vans have already been successfully used as a real-time deployment, comparing a live camera feed of faces against a watchlist to locate outstanding suspects.

The Home Office have said that extensive work has taken place to ensure that the LFR technology algorithms have no statistical bias and that all matches will also be confirmed by an officer before any engagement or arrests take place. The use of LFR vans is strictly governed by data protection, equality and human rights laws, and can only be used for a policing purpose where it is necessary and proportionate.

In line with statutory requirements, the vans will also be clearly signposted when deployed so that the public are aware if there is one in their local area. Any images of people who are not wanted by police are immediately blurred and deleted forever to protect residents and visitors in the county.

I look forward to bringing you more news when the vans are ready for deployment later this year.

Thieves to get tagged

As the national PCC lead for business and retail crime, I understand the impact of shop theft on people and businesses and have long been an advocate for tougher measures against shoplifters.

One of my priorities in my new Police and Crime Plan is to make Sussex a pilot area for electronic tagging of persistent offenders.

This week, I welcomed Detective Inspector (DI) Martin Harmer from Sussex Police to my office to lead on this.

Having first asked for electronic tagging to become ‘business as usual’ when tackling persistent shoplifters two years ago, I have become impatient waiting for Government to make a decision so I have, instead, decided to pioneer this project with Sussex Police myself.

Shoplifting not only destroys livelihoods for our independent retailers but it also erodes the culture of our high streets by making residents feel unsafe when they visit.

Over my time in office I have worked tirelessly with Sussex Police and various partners to tackle business and retail crime. I am pleased to say we have seen a marked improvement in the police response - reporting is higher than ever, solved rates for shop theft are up too, platforms such as DISC and One-Touch Reporting are building trust by putting our retailers in much closer contact with the police. 

Our tagging project seeks to take our mission one step further by stopping persistent shoplifters from even accessing the areas in which they commit their crimes.

I look forward to working with DI Harmer on this project and to sharing our progress.

Katy Bourne OBE
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner