Hong Kong’s police chief has said that surveillance cameras in the city might soon use facial recognition technology. This will happen if they can solve some legal and technical problems first.
Police Commissioner Joe Chow Yat-ming said authorities will focus on connecting CCTV cameras in busy shopping areas to their SmartView system.
The police force aimed to start using facial recognition technology by the end of last year. But Chow mentioned that there were some legal and technical problems that needed to be solved first.
“I hope that we can introduce [facial recognition technology] in the near future ... I cannot say with certainty whether it will happen this year, but of course, I hope we can. If not, I hope it will be next year,” Chow said.
Chow added that the force would tell the public before deploying the technology.
Police earlier said the technology would be used to identify suspects or missing people and to alert officers to matches.
The government also plans to install an additional 6,500 cameras across the city, on top of the previously announced goal of adding 20,000 each year.
