Passports ‘will be used to catch shoplifters’ – with criminals caught on CCTV to be compared with database of 45m people
PASSPORTS will be used to snare shoplifters caught on CCTV - by comparing their mugs to 45 million others on the database.
Faces of burglars, car and bike thieves from Ring doorbells and dashcams will also be set against other government systems.
Foreign crooks not on Britain's passport database will be busted using immigration and asylum biometrics system.
The move will be made possible by a full integration of police, passport and national databases - which are currently all separate.
Announcing the move, crime and policing minister Chris Philp said cops will be able to match a crook to a face with the "click of one button".
It follows a surge in concern about out-of-control shoplifting, car thefts and burglaries which are often caught on CCTV or Ring-type doorbell cameras.
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Mr Philp said he hopes to have the system up and running within two years.
Mr Philp said: “I’m going to be asking police forces to search all of those databases — the police national database, which has custody images.
"But also other databases like the passport database — not just for shoplifting but for crime generally to get those matches.
"Because the technology is now so good that you can get a blurred image and get a match for it."
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Facing down fears the move is a step towards Chinese-style mass surveillance, Mr Philp told the Tory party conference in Manchester personal information will not be compromised.
He said it would be legal to use passport holders’ details even if they have never been arrested, as the footage will be used as part of a criminal investigation.
But Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, blasted the "Orwellian" plans a "gross violation of British privacy principles";.
There were 2.7 million theft offences in the year ending March 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics
One in 30 car thefts to to a charge while four in every five reports closed without a suspect being identified last year.
There were a massive 342,343 cases of shoplifting recorded by the police in the UK between 2022-2023.
This was up from 275,076 the previous year, according security training firm .
The shoplifting scourge has become an epidemic across the country, with crooks targeting everywhere from corner shops to garden centres.
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Experts say the spike in pilfering is being driven by the cost-of-living crisis, a lack of security staff and organised crime groups.
But shops have hit back, bringing in measures from cardboard cutouts of expensive items like champagne and putting protein bars in plastic boxes.
