Reading your emotions and studying the way you walk and talk in the street: Draconian cameras police want to use to ID criminals and prevent suicides

Police could use street cameras to read our emotions, identifying criminals by their eyes, voice or even the way they walk.

Ministers launched a consultation yesterday on emerging technology that analyses ‘motions and emotions’ and could help catch criminals, prevent suicides and find missing people.

Under the draconian plans, which critics fear could usher in a ‘surveillance state in everything but name’, the Home Office is consulting on the use of technology which ‘analyses the body and its movements to infer information about the person, such as their emotions or actions’.

In the 10-week consultation, officials are asking the public whether police should be allowed to use such ‘inferential technology’. 

In a suggested example, CCTV cameras at a suicide hotspot could send an alert to a police station when an individual ‘repeatedly paces the area’.

Other examples of biometric technologies under consideration for police use include voice and iris recognition.

Additionally, police could use CCTV cameras to perform ‘object recognition’ searches, looking for suspects by their clothing, bags, shoes or vehicle.