There is public support for the police's use of facial recognition to solve and prevent crimes - even in traditionally more skeptical countries as Denmark. Here, a new opinion poll shows that 84 percent have a positive attitude. However, trust in the technology depends on politicians and authorities establishing clear rules for the protection of data and privacy.
Whether it is recorded video material used to solve crimes, or live images that, for example, can identify unwanted hooligans at a football stadium, public support for the use of facial recognition is quite significant.
In Denmark 84 percent support the use of facial recognition in connection with the prevention and solving of crime and terrorism. The support spans across age, gender, and geography, according to a nationally representative analysis conducted by Norstat for Milestone Systems.
But the support has strings attached. 70% of Danes see clear rules, data protection, and transparency about how and where the technology is used as the most important factor for their trust. Additionally, 51% consider it crucial that data is deleted as soon as it is no longer relevant to a case.
Danish Milestone Systems develops and sells data-driven video technology and analysis tools used in, for example, airports, by police, traffic control, companies, hospitals, and stadiums worldwide.
"It is crucial to have clear and transparent regulation if we are to maintain the public's support and trust in the technology and the authorities. At the same time, there must be security for how facial recognition data is stored and deleted when it is no longer relevant. It could be 30-60 days," says Thomas Jensen.
The technology is used today for everything from verification – such as when you open your iPhone, show a badge, or go through passport control – to recognizing a specific person at, for example, a sports venue.
"In addition to all the practical and well-known applications, modern AI-driven facial recognition is also a powerful tool that can help both solve and prevent crimes," says Thomas Jensen.
Although the publics knowledge of the technology behind facial recognition is relatively low, the attitude is positive. The new survey shows significant support for using facial recognition technology in cases of murder (88%) and serious violence and rape (87%). Likewise, 81% believe that facial recognition should be used to prevent and solve terrorism by quickly identifying known terrorists.
Clear rules and regulation are one thing. There is still a need for common sense and human judgment, says Thomas Jensen.
He emphasizes that although most respondents in the survey support the police's use of facial recognition in their work to protect citizens, prevent, and especially solve crimes.
"But that trust and support also obliges to create clarity and frameworks," he emphasizes.
- Today, AI – artificial intelligence – is used to train facial recognition software and convert images into anonymous signatures/numbers. These signatures are compared with anonymous signatures in a database based on images of faces from, for example, the police, Interpol, FBI, etc.
- Only when there is a potential match between the signatures are the images retrieved from the database for comparison.
- The technology is used today for everything from verification – such as when you open your iPhone, show a badge, or go through passport control – to recognizing a specific person at, for example, a football stadium.
- The technology behind facial recognition was developed in 1965 by the American mathematician Woodrow Wilson Bledsoe (1921–1995) to identify or confirm a person's identity based on facial features.
- Post-event facial recognition analyzes video recordings after the event has taken place, instead of live. Investigators can use recognition software on recorded video from cameras to identify suspects by matching their face/signatures with known databases.
- Real-time facial recognition is the immediate analysis of a live video feed, where faces are compared with a database to generate instant alerts when a match is found. At large public events such as sports stadiums, real-time facial recognition can be used to detect wanted or banned individuals – for example, known hooligans.
- The headquarters in Brøndby houses 500 of 1,500 employees worldwide.
- Revenue of 1.7 billion DKK in 2023.
- Milestone is number one in Europe and Asia and number two globally in data-driven video technology.