HUNDREDS of Britain’s most prolific shoplifters are being identified by cutting-edge facial recognition technology, it can be revealed today.
A pilot project using CCTV supplied by 12 leading retailers in the capital has already resulted in 149 suspects being pinpointed within days of its launch at the end of September.
They were unmasked from 302 images supplied by stores which were fed into a Met Police database to be compared with custody mug shots taken of people previously arrested.
Biometric identification was then carried out with the unique individual facial measurements of shoplifting suspects caught on camera.
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the innovative scheme tackling serial offenders, including bullies and hatemongers who terrorise shop workers, as “game-changing.”
Sir Mark said: “We’re working with shops across the capital to target and track down criminals in a way we never have before.
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“We’re pushing the boundaries and using innovation and technology to rapidly identify criminals.
“The results we’ve seen so far are game-changing. The use of facial recognition in this way could revolutionise how we investigate and solve crime.
“What’s most powerful is what we’ve learned about those involved in this offending so far.
“It’s clear the majority are career criminals involved in serious crime. This data and information helps us focus our efforts in an even more precise way than we originally anticipated.”
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Sir Mark yesterday met with retail leaders as a new joint effort was launched to tackle the scourge of shoplifters.
Around 50,000 shoplifting offences are recorded in London annually – but the true figure is believed to be as high as one million.
Cops are targeting prolific offenders who use violence or exploit women and children to hit stores.
Images of suspects can be matched with mug shots in Met systems within a minute with the technology previously being used to nail offenders wanted for murder, rape and violence.
Met director of intelligence Lindsey Chiswick, national police lead on facial recognition technology, said: “It is a really agile tool.
“We can point this tool wherever we want and use it to identify criminals in a really slick way.”
Independent testing with the National Physical Laboratory has shown 100% accuracy with images identified from comparison with mug shots.
However, police are using the system as an intelligence tool to lead them to suspects and find corroborating evidence to prosecute them.
Met Commander Kyle Gordon, who oversees prevention of business and retail offences, said tackling volume crime is the biggest problem for police.
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He said police were “confident” the new scheme tackling retail crime will lead to “bigger benefits.”
Mr Gordon said he believes it will help expose modern slavery, child exploitation, violence against women and girls as well as identifying offenders with addictions.
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