Big Read

Changing of the guard: How tech is transforming policing

The use of facial recognition and other technologies in policing has unsettled privacy activists who see the new methods as an overreach – but it is also very effective when used judiciously and steered by humans, not ‘machines’

Sweeping surveillance has become the order of the day for much policing technology. Picture: Getty

Advocates for the use of new, advanced technologies in policing often turn to the missing child scenario to sell the advantages. This was evident in a presentation from Motorola Solutions at its Critical Communications World (CCW) convention in Helsinki recently.

It showed how details such as a child’s age and what they were wearing at the time they disappeared could be used to search through available footage and, with knowledge of the time and location ...