London, United Kingdom (CNN) -- London's police announced controversial plans to use real-time facial recognition technology to help officers identify suspects and increase security in the British capital.
London Police said in a statement that the technology will be placed in areas where people responsible for serious and violent crimes, such as armed attacks and sexual exploitation of children, are stationed, as shown by analytical data. Cameras will also be directed at small target areas to scan people's faces as they walk around.
As a modern police force, new technologies must be used to keep people safe in London, Assistant Commissioner Nick Evgrave said in a statement, adding: "We are using tried and tested technology. Similar technologies are in use before on a large scale across the UK, In the private sector".
The technology, manufactured by the Japanese company NEC, operates on a stand-alone system that is not linked to any other imaging system, such as closed-circuit television or automatic number plate recognition.
The decision follows an October investigation into direct facial recognition technology by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, which raised serious privacy and accuracy concerns.
The investigation indicated that the technology discriminates against women and people of color, an issue documented by researchers in the United States, where several cities banned the use of this technology.
The UK's Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said: "Moving too quickly to deploy technologies that could unduly intrude into people's daily lives risks destroying trust not only in the technology, but in the basic model of consent-keeping."
Some California cities in the United States of America, including San Francisco, Oakland, Somerville, and Massachusetts, have decided that the risks of facial recognition technology outweigh the benefits, to ban its use by city departments. India has used the technology to find missing children and wants to build the world's largest facial recognition system.
London's police said it would work with local communities before deploying the technology across the city.