UK police recommend installing CCTV cameras ‘at eye level’ for facial recognition

People should install hidden CCTV cameras at “face level” outside their homes and businesses to improve the chances of successfully capturing criminals, recommends London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner, according to a report by the Telegraph.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe suggests that people should install two cameras, including one mounted high on the wall to run surveillance of the complete criminal act and a second camera at face level that will capture criminals’ faces.

Those families and businesses that are only able to install one camera should do so at eye level, Hogan-Howe said.

Facial recognition technology allows police to compare images taken from CCTV cameras to a database of mugshots for the purpose of finding a successful match.

However, few households actually had cameras installed on the premises, and those that actually did would tend to position them far too high, he said.

“Taking [pictures of] the tops of their heads is not that helpful for facial recognition which relies on the eyes and the configuration of the area around the nose and the mouth,” Hogan-Howe said. “So we’re trying to get people ideally to add another camera at face level.”

Hogan-Howe said that the majority of criminals are “pretty disorganized” and are unlikely to consider breaking a camera if it is positioned at a lower height.

He recommended that more families and businesses should purchase cameras outside their homes and stores as they are “relatively cheap”.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cctv  |  criminal ID  |  police  |  surveillance cameras