POLICE have been told to double their use of facial recognition technology to nail criminals.
Policing Minister Chris Philp wants 200,000 Police National Database searches a year by early summer.
The aim is to hunt down as many serious offenders as possible, including terrorists, murderers and football hooligans, and get them put away.
The technology captures live footage of crowds and compares it to a watch-list of suspects.
Police notices will in future warn the public of its use, and data will be deleted automatically if no match is found.
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When there is a match, police get an alert and can nab the suspect from among hundreds of innocent bystanders.
Facial recognition technology has already helped catch a large number of offenders, including murderers and serial sexual offenders.
It led to the arrest of three people at last month’s Arsenal- Tottenham North London derby, one a sex crime suspect.
A pilot project using CCTV images from 12 leading stores in London saw 149 suspects pinpointed within days of its launch at the end of September.
Mr Philp said: “AI technology is a powerful tool for good, with huge opportunities to advance policing and cut crime.
"We are committed to making sure police have the systems they need to solve and prevent crimes, bring offenders to justice and protect the public.”
It comes as the Government invests in AI to nail paedophiles.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman will lead an event with police and techies tomorrow on how they can tackle AI-created child sexual abuse images.