Bedfordshire Police have said just ten arrests were made over the Bedford River Festival this weekend (20/21 July) with Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology responsible for two of them, as well as “further positive results”.
The system, used for the first time at the River Festival, was implemented along two of the main thoroughfares.
Bedfordshire Police told the Bedford Independent that over the festival weekend, LFR led to the arrest of two individuals wanted on court warrants, one of which was identified for an additional offence when stopped.
It also picked up four individuals who had court-imposed conditions or notification requirements against them.
Detective Superintendent Aman Dhaliwal, who leads the LFR team within Bedfordshire Police, said: “We are really pleased with the results from the Live Facial Recognition deployment and the entire force at the River Festival.
“The arrest figure from across the weekend shows that the messaging in the lead up to the event, and the policing during it, were effective in deterring criminal activity, which LFR certainly played a big part in achieving.
“It is a tactic that prevents and detects crime that we will certainly be considering for future operations and events in the county.”
A spokesperson for Bedford Police added that just 10 arrests were made across the whole of the River Festival weekend. “Highlighting the hard work prior to the festival, promoting awareness of the policing footprint to keep everyone safe,” they said.
Last week, the announcement that LFR would be used at the River Festival, which attracts up to 300,000 people across the weekend, was met with criticism by the human rights organisation Liberty.
They told the Local Democracy Reporting service, “We should all be concerned at what this means for our rights – to privacy, to protest, and to freedom from discrimination. The expansion of this technology to Bedfordshire Police is of grave concern.”
Read: Concerns raised over police’s planned use of facial recognition software at Bedford River Festival
At the time, a spokesperson for Bedfordshire Police said “Individuals who do not trigger an alert have their image and biometric data deleted immediately which is irretrievable.
“This is a function that has been built into the software which has been tested independently by the National Physics Laboratory. We would like to reassure the public that the data is irretrievable once deleted.”
 with...){kind=link}