A REVOLUTIONARY computer-controlled surveillance system which automatically tracks police-designated 'target faces' goes into action -in east London this week, prompting fierce criticism from civil liberties groups.
Sophisticated software which can match people passing video cameras to facial images stored on a database is to be given a six-mouth trial by Newham council and the Metropolitan Police. The trial starts at 9am on Wednesday.
When a 'target face' is identified by a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera, the information will be passed by council security to the police. Initially, the system is likely to be used to prevent muggings and shoplifting. An example of people who may find themselves on the system are the members of a shoplifting ring nicknamed the 'Kenya Boys' by local police.
"We have 10 or so active muggers in and around our shopping centres," says security chief Bob Lack. As the trial develops, facial images of known or suspected, paedophiles may also be scanned into the watchful computer.
Although for some residents the system is an Orwellian nightmare, local politicians claim overwhelming support for the £60,000 trial. The trial was approved by all 60 councillors, all of whom are Labour. "We have listened to the people of the borough and we have acted," says Councillor Ian Corbett."Crime prevention is the number one issue for 60 per cent of the people in Newham."
But Liz Parratt, a spokesperson for the civil liberties pressure group Liberty, warns that innocent people are bound to suffer, as it is inevitable that mistakes will be made, "There is a balance to be struck between crime prevention and our individual land collective freedoms," she says. "The use of this kind of technology strikes the wrong balance."
Corbett has a robust reply. "Yes, it is a civil liberties issue," he says. "Our priority is the liberty of the people of this borough to go about their business without fear of crime. The rights of the majority are the most important consideration."
Deep in the bowels of the council's security centre, banks of screens show images from 140 fixed CCTV cameras and another 11 mobile units.
Giles Richardson, who has designed the program, called Mandrake, demonstrates the system. His face has been put on the database to test the software. As he, approaches a camera, a red ring around his face, - a 'frame-grabber' in computer jargon - turns green as the computer recognises the image. An alarm sounds and police are alerted, via a fixed hotline. In a real case, they would then decide what, if any, action to take.
Not all the council's cameras are positioned well enough to track faces, and the trial will be based on a dozen dotted around shopping centres, Underground stations, underpasses and car parks.
Although the council is anxious not to overstate the dangers posed by paedophiles, local police intelligence suggests there are 12 active paedophiles in the borough. "I think we would have unanimous support for using the system to protect children," said Corbett. The council has cameras near schools which could be used by the Mandrake system.
Security chief Lack says the computer has distinct advantages over humans. "If you stare at a screen for hours, you tend to glaze over," he says. Pat Oldcorn from Software and Systems international, the firm which designed the system, adds: "It never goes to the loo, either."
The council is at pains to emphasise that only the image and a police identification number are available to its staff, and that a person makes the decision to refer a sighting to the police.
The police are also obliged to review the 60 to 100 target faces every three months. Nonetheless, the 'Big Brother' nature of the system has been enough to put off some interested US parties.
Although similar systems are in use on the US-Mexican border and have been tested in airports, so far the software has only been able to check the identity of one person at a time. "What's new here is that the system actively scans a number of faces, looking for one it recognises," says Oldcorn.
One of the potential applications for the system is spotting known football hooligans. West Ham's stadium is in Newham, and the council has installed a camera above the exit stairs from the nearby Underground station.
Newham is in the forefront of CCTV anti-crime measures and is in the process of installing hidden cameras in housing estates and expanding the network to 240 cameras. "They make very good silent witnesses," says Lack.
"But we never forget the need for the human element. None of our cameras has got down off a pole and arrested anyone yet." -
Crime rates in Newham have already plummeted, says Corbett. But he accepts that some crimes may simply have been displaced to neighbouring boroughs. One of them, Tower Hamlets, is now erecting CCTV cameras of its own.
In a chilling vision of the future, Oldcorn says that ultimately the only way to deal with criminals is to give them nowhere safe to go.
"Gradually this sort of technology will cover the whole country. Then it will become unprofitable to commit crime anywhere."
MUGGINGS, car thefts, burglaries and other serious crimes are now more common in Britain than in America, according to a lengthy US Department of Justice report, writes Andy McSmith, Chief Political Correspondent.
The 100-page academic study into the relationship between crime statistics and the number of offenders jailed destroys the belief that the streets of Britain are safer than, those of the United States. The only sop to British pride is that the worst offences - murder and rape are more common in the US, where criminals are more likely to carry guns.
The study's publication is an embarrassment to Home Office ministers, who are working on new legislation to cut crime, based on the belief that there are more cost effective ways of deterring petty offenders than sending them to prison. In the US offenders are much more likely to be jailed.
Crime statistics to be published on Tuesday are expected to show a continuing increase in violent and sex crimes in Britain for the year ending April 1998, but may show also that Labour's initiatives to cut petty crime have started to take effect.
Home Office minister Alun Michael said last night: "We have always known that car crime went up dramatically during the 1980s, but the comparisons of things like muggings - which are nearly twice the level they were at the beginning of the Eighties - does emphasise the need for the sort of initiatives which will be in the next Criminal Justice Bill."
The US report, which took a year to complete, compares data from victim surveys, police, courts and prison services in Britain and America over 15 years.