Police Scotland is seeking to pilot an AI-powered CCTV search system in Aberdeen, using “object” matching rather than controversial facial recognition.
The force has set out plans for a “pilot implementation” of the BriefCam video analytics platform on the public space CCTV system at Marischal College in the city.
The software speeds up searches of recorded footage to help with crime prevention, detection, protecting life and potentially counter-terrorism, according to a report published this week on the Scottish Police Authority website.
Under the proposal, a three-month “proof of concept” would assess how BriefCam performs, its benefits for policing and its suitability for a national roll-out.
The trial would test whether the technology can help the force make more ‘effective, proportionate and ethical’ use of existing CCTV footage, and the software would not be available to anyone outside it.
Object recognition is not the same as facial recognition. It identifies and classifies objects – vehicles, clothing, unattended items – and can categorise people as male, female or child, but it does not verify who anyone is.
Unlike facial recognition, it does not analyse biometric facial features to establish a person’s identity, supporting public safety without putting a name to a face.
Notably, BriefCam does have facial recognition capabilities, but the proposal excludes their use by Police Scotland, with access ‘restricted’ to trained software engineers.
The report points to cases where the system has aided investigations. In a Cumbria murder inquiry, officers needed to know whether the victim’s car had passed through Penrith – which meant checking 250 hours of footage. BriefCam scanned it in under two hours, and further filtering confirmed the car had not been in the area.
In a Police Scotland missing-person case, the software traced a high-risk individual’s movements after they boarded a train carrying a distinctive bag, helping locate them in Exeter the next day. Cumbria, which assisted, said it would otherwise have turned the request down because reviewing the footage manually would have taken too much time.
Aberdeen City Council and Police Scotland switched to a jointly operated CCTV system in 2020, and BriefCam was bought jointly at that point. The council still uses it, but the force does not currently operate it. A review found Police Scotland had used the software previously, and that use has now been paused while the governance around it is reviewed.
The technology is used by law enforcement agencies, councils and other bodies across the UK. A public consultation on the Aberdeen proposal, which drew responses from 141 police staff and 1,228 members of the public, returned mixed views, with most respondents agreeing there should be clear policies governing how the technology is used.