Since 2024, the government has begun an initiative named “SmartView” to install closed-circuit television in public places with high crime rates and pedestrian flow to assist in crime prevention, detection, and the preservation of public order and safety.
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The government and police have also indicated plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition technology into these CCTV systems in coming years.
Similar plans extend towards traffic offence enforcement, with the Automatic Traffic Enforcement System (ATES) being implemented recently in Central and Kwun Tong, where CCTV systems, with the help of AI, analyse the dynamics of vehicles in real time, identify offences, and record traffic licence plates and/or contraventions of offending vehicles, as well as providing police with suggestions for traffic diversions, and targeted enforcement actions.
These initiatives are consistent with many other jurisdictions that have also begun deploying AI facial recognition technology for these exact same purposes in recent years.
For example, in the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan Police in London utilise facial recognition technology for the prevention and detection of crime.
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This includes live facial recognition, which involves cameras targeted at a specific area, with images captured, streamed and compared to a watch list. They have also implemented a retrospective facial recognition system, which allows authorities to search CCTV, images, or short videos against a custody image database.