Facial recognition could transform policing in same way as DNA, says Met chief

Sir Mark Rowley says technology could help catch wanted criminals, but rights campaigners warn of privacy violations

Britain’s most senior police officer has predicted that facial recognition technology will transform criminal investigations as much as DNA testing has done, a prospect described as dystopian byhuman rights campaigners .

In an apparent reference to the recapture of Daniel Khalife, the terrorism suspect who escaped HMP Wandsworth, Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said: “We’ve also shown recently that live facial recognition is massively effective at picking out wanted offenders from crowds of people.”