Police want access to driving licence database to catch more Far-Right Southport rioters by facial recognition
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Police chiefs are urging ministers to give them access to the driving licence database so they can catch more of the Southport Far-Right rioters using facial recognition. The National Police Chiefs’ Council told the Commons home affairs committee that 127 suspects involved in the summer riots had been identified using retrospective facial recognition.
But they believe more could have been caught if officers could scour the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s database to identified suspected offenders. “The use of retrospective facial recognition has been a crucial part of the rapid police response to the summer disorder by helping us to identify offenders through police force custody image databases, HM Passport Office, Immigration, and Interpol databases,” the NPCC told the MPs’ investigation into the public disorder.
“However, there remain many of these offenders who have not been identified on these systems. “Police currently lack access to the database held by the DVLA, and access to this would have helped during this investigation. “While this is being looked at by the Home Office, where a national investigation of this kind occurs in future, police access to the DVLA database would help to substantially improve offender identification.”.
On Monday, the 18-year-old accused of killing three girls at a dance class in Southport admitted the attack on the first day of his trial. Axel Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancashire, was to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday charged with 16 offences, including three counts of murder.
