South Wales Police Expanding Use of NEC Facial Recognition Tech

“…SWP Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis highlighted the technology’s utility in the case of the aforementioned arrest of a wanted criminal…”

NEC is offering new details on the biometric technology it has provided to South Wales Police in the UK.

The technology was deployed this past spring, ahead of a major soccer match in Cardiff. SWP’s aim was to use facial recognition to automatically identify known hooligans and other criminals at the Principality Stadium and at the town’s main train station. It also led to at least one arrest of a person on an outstanding warrant, with Ars Technica reporting at the time that the facial recognition technology had been provided by NEC.

The company has now officially confirmed that SWP is using its NeoFace Watch face biometrics technology, which netted NEC an award from growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan last year. The company says SWP has deployed the technology through video feeds from cameras mounted on police vehicles, along them to constantly scan for wanted criminals and missing persons as they room the streets. SWP will also use the technology to scan through still and video images from crime scenes.

In a statement, SWP Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis highlighted the technology’s utility in the case of the aforementioned arrest of a wanted criminal, saying the individual had walked by police officers on the street before being identified by the biometric technology, and adding that “it is probably an arrest we would not have made at any previous time.”

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July 11, 2017 – by Alex Perala