A pilot project implementing facial recognition technology in Moscow has reportedly led to the arrests of 42 suspects in a month.
Moscow has ramped up video surveillance ahead of the FIFA World Cup that kicks off in three weeks, including with facial recognition capabilities at metro stations capable of identifying 20 faces per second.
Around 50,000 photographs of wanted suspects have been uploaded into the Moscow metro system, the state-owned Sberbank vice president Stanislav Kuznetsov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency Thursday.
“As a result, 42 repeat offenders were detained at four metro stations in a month,” Kuznetsov was quoted as saying.
He said Sberbank CEO German Gref plans to discuss expanding the facial-recognition system beyond four metro stations with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the annual economic forum underway in St. Petersburg.
Sberbank acquired a stake in the VisionLabs facial recognition company last fall to create a “unique biometric identifier” involving face, voice and retina identification.
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