Facial recognition could transform policing in same way as DNA, says Met chief

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met police commissioner, told the thinktank Policy Exchange that facial recognition technology surpassed his expectations. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

Britain’s most senior police officer has predicted that facial recognition technology will transform criminal investigations as much as DNA testing has done, a prospect described as dystopian byhuman rights campaigners .

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said: “We’ve also shown recently that live facial recognition is massively effective at picking out wanted offenders from crowds of people.”