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Two men have been charged following the rollout of live facial recognition cameras in Birkenhead town centre over the weekend.
Jay Mathews, 46, from Birkenhead, was arrested after the technology generated an alert. He was later charged with breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and remanded into custody to appear at Wirral Magistrates' Court.
The Live Facial Recognition Technology (LFR) has been deployed twice on Grange Road this year. The technology ran from 10:30 am to 5 pm on the road on 5 September. Five alerts were generated, and four were flagged as related to registered sex offenders who were stop-checked and found to be complying with court-imposed conditions.
Officers also stop-checked two men under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Tommy Lee Maughan, 19, of Hodings Lane, Harlow, was arrested and charged with three offences of possession of a Class C controlled drug – Diazepam, Pregabalin and Alprazolam – and obstructing an officer in the execution of their duty. He was also remanded into custody to appear at Wirral Magistrates' Court.
A second man, aged 56 from Poulton, was issued with a community resolution for drug possession.
No biometric data or images of faces scanned were retained by police. Watchlist images are deleted within 24 hours of each deployment, and any CCTV footage is deleted within 31 days.
Inspector Ben Sorrell said in a statement: "This was our second LFR deployment in Birkenhead, and I hope the fact we have made arrests and were able to check compliance with Sexual Harm Prevention Orders reassures our communities."
He added: "Our priority is to keep people safe and ensure the town centre is a place where law-abiding members of the community can feel confident going about their day."
The deployment was supported by the Sex Offender Unit as well as officers from Wirral's Town Centre, Neighbourhood and Proactive Teams.
