Olympic Database

The British police are developing the first national database of mugshots, in order to use face recognition technology to match CCTV images with details of offenders.

The system is being developed as a pilot scheme involving the Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Merseyside police. It has already generated a database of more than 750,000 facial images over the past 18 months.

Are there really that many criminals in that part of the UK?

Peter Neyroud, the chief executive of the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), wants the system up and running in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

The system will enable officers on the beat to be equipped with advanced "second-generation" hand-held computers which can take and transmit fingerprints, download mugshots and details from the police national computer, and access images from local CCTV cameras.

Funny how the Olympics are being used as an excuse/deadline for increased surveillance!

Big Brother

The 2012 London Olympics has given the state a rather nice excuse to beef up its surveillance of the general population, by linking up 500,000 CCTV cameras across the capital.

The Metropolitan Police (Met) force wants to pool its 10,000 cameras with traffic and congestion cameras across London.

The network will be operated from a command centre, in London, by military, police and intelligence services.

Assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, Olympic Security Co-ordinator, said:

"Efforts focus on the capabilities we currently have and how these can be used efficiently to make London safer both now and during Games time.

A good example of this is how the current capabilities of various CCTV networks might be harnessed and integrated in London within the current legislative framework, to deliver greater effect in mitigating specific threats as part of the Olympic security effort."

The interesting thing is that even after the Olympics have ended, the command centre would remain in place.

Why?

Droids To Patrol Olympics

The RAF will use MQ-9 "Reaper" robo-planes to patrol the skies over London during the Olympics in 2012.

The unmanned droids will fly above London to provide surveillance for the security of the Games. They are equipped with a multi-spectral telescopic imaging system, which can locate a human's body heat and see in the dark. They also carry a synthetic-aperture radar which can track people walking on the ground.

The droids are remotely controlled by pilots based on the ground.

The Grim Reaper

The Royal Air Force have confirmed that it will deploy armed "Reaper" unmanned aerial vehicles during the London 2012 Olympics.

There is, it has to be said, a degree of risk in deploying armed "Terminator" inspired robo planes over London. However, the British government in their desire to keep the population under control regard the political benefits from spinning the terrorist threat as greater than the risk of any of the drones going awry and killing a civilian.

The Reaper is the latest version of the General Atomics Predator hunter-killer UAV, it can carry an array of laser-guided bombs and missiles including the Hellfire air-to-ground weapon which has been used against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Hunter-killer UAVs are controlled by a ground station that directs them to the enemy and remotely fires its weapons.

The 11m-long Reaper can fly for 14 hours and carry an array of sensors including cameras, radars, electro-optical and infra-red that allow it to be deployed around the clock in all types of weather.

UAVs are used primarily for surveillance and targeting, but can make a highly cost-effective offensive weapon when armed with bombs and missiles.

So that's reassuring then!