Germany extends facial recognition test at rail station

World
Europe

Germany’s top security official is extending tests of automatic facial recognition technology after an initial six-month trial showed the system had a good success rate.

“We want to test how good the technology really is,” police spokesman Jens Schobranski said of the pilot project, part of a promise by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives to raise funds for police and security.

The tests used high-quality pictures of more than 200 volunteers to identify them as they passed through Berlin’s Suedkreuz railway station.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday that cameras spotted the volunteers more than 70 percent of the time, with the wrong person flagged in less than one percent of cases.

The German Bar Association presents facial recognition technology during a presser in Berlin, Germany, August 1, 2017. /Reuters Photo

De Maiziere said a second six-month trial will test whether the system can recognize a person as effectively using lower-quality images, such as when no police mug shot of a fugitive is available.

He wants to roll the system out at train stations and airports nationwide if the second tests succeed.

Ulrich Schellenberg, president of the German Bar Association, doubted that the new technology will be that helpful. The deadliest Islamist attack in Germany last year was carried out by a migrant who had been monitored by security agents, he said.

“Improving security is not about uncovering something new but rather to go after what we know more forcefully,” he said.

7368km

Source(s): AP ,Reuters