(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-20 07:33

LONDON - Police in Britain will use close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to "recognize" criminals, Sky News reported Wednesday.

The newly unveiled Facial Images National Database project will feature photographs enhanced using "facial mapping" techniques, according to the report.

Combined with computerized facial recognition techniques, CCTV cameras could trigger an alert when a known criminal is spotted.

David McIntosh, chief executive of software group OmniPerception, said the move would be very beneficial to police work.

"These are very important early steps and they will eventually build a good database," he said, adding that the quality of the photographs was paramount to the success of such a project and that an increasing number of police stations were able to take good quality pictures.

Facial imaging is already being used to improve policing efficiency in some areas. The software will also allow the CCTV cameras to identify strange behavior, including that of terrorists or street robbers.

The report said the hand-held computers are likely to be rolled out rapidly to officers on the street.

The Home Office has allocated 50 million pounds (some 100 million US dollars) for 10,000 of the mobile devices by September.

Peter Neyroud, chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency, said he expected "second generation" computers to be used by 2012, which would be able to take fingerprints, access images from CCTV cameras and download records from the Police National Computer.