Labour home secretary Yvette Cooper appeared on BBC Breakfast to discuss the use of facial recognition vans in the UK
Yvette Cooper sparked fury on BBC Breakfast (Image: Getty)
BBC Breakfast fans were fuming over a segment involving home secretary Yvette Cooper, as she discussed the rollout of more facial recognition vans across the UK. The Labour MP sparked criticism from viewers, who fumed it was “no use” and accused her of turning the country into a dystopia akin to George Orwell’s 1984.
Cooper explained: “At the moment we’ve seen it being used to identify the most serious sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes who, maybe, the police have not been able to find. And they are wanted for appearances in court, they’re wanted for the most serious offences and this is helping them in order to be able to find and catch those criminals.”
But furious fans took to X, with one tweeting: “It’s all very well finding and catching criminals, but it’s not a lot of use when the justice system is so rubbish nothing ever happens to them.”
Another agreed: “What’s the point of having them if they will only release the criminals way before the end of their sentence due to ‘overcrowding’?”
While a third echoed: “What is the failure rate of this ‘facial recognition’ tech? How many people were falsely identified as criminals?”
Live facial recognition vans are being rolled out (Image: Getty)
Another viewer said: “How will facial recognition work on those who wear masks and full facial coverings? It won’t!”
According to the government, the technology has so far been used to make 580 arrests across 12 months in London, including that of 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions. It was first used in England and Wales in 2017, during a football match in Cardiff.
Now ten vans are being funded across seven police forces in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire. The technology is also in use in South Wales, London and Essex.
