The Home Office in England will deploy 10 new live facial recognition vans across seven police forces to help track suspects in serious crimes. The vehicles, shared between Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire, will scan faces in public and match them against a police watchlist, according to BBC.

Ministers say the system has helped make hundreds of arrests in London, but critics warn it risks enabling mass surveillance without proper legal safeguards. A public consultation is under way to set rules for its use, while the government insists it will be applied proportionately and without bias.