Western Australian Police to Use Live Facial-Recognition Tech at "Major Events" and "Crowded Areas" for the First Time
A marked police van will be used outside major events or in crowded areas to live scan the faces of people walking past, in an Australian first.
The faces of people will be matched against a database of people with outstanding arrest warrants and registered child sex offenders, as well as missing persons.
"This is not about mass surveillance," [the police commissioner] said, "This is about specifying those in our community who are wanted by police."
While the trial only includes one marked van, the police commissioner is not ruling out further covert technology being used in the future, including at protests.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-19/live-facial-recognition-technology-to-be-used-by-wa-police/106817264Open linkView original on lemmy.ml
Don't worry guys its only for specific high-danger events like 'crowded areas', easy enough to avoid
Imma leave this here. Story about this tech at sports stadiums in the US. I kinda wish Australia would not be joining us in building out Orwellian panopticons.
Another incident saw a mother booted from a Rockettes show she was going to see with her 9 year old daughter, just because she worked for a law firm that had been involved with personal injury cases against a restaurant under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment. ..... Madison Square Garden isn’t the only example of excessive surveillance. It’s seemingly becoming less and less possible to exist in public without being constantly under watch.
inb4 harm means Palantir top brass not being able to attend because there's protestors blockading the event
another dont thread on me shitlib licking the mass-surveillance boot at every opportunity
Can someone destroy these Orwell devices already? ACAB
This is so fucking illegal on every single level. Can't we put these camera's in police agents' and politicians' homes? Let's see how much they love surveillance!
What the hell
This is worse than 1984
I feel like balaclavas are going to be in fashion within the next 10 years
Groucho Marx masks, fursonas, wax candy lips, infra-red disco ball earrings...
They'll just follow France and ban those too.