Victoria Police gets access to national mugshot database to fight terrorism and crime using facial recognition

POLICE mugshots from across Australia will be used to help thwart a terror attack in Victoria using cutting-edge facial recognition technology.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson.

POLICE mugshots of every terrorist and criminal nationwide will be used to thwart attacks using cutting-edge facial recognition technology.

Photos from visas and passports — even if people haven’t been in trouble with authorities — could also be used to catch culprits in a separate plan.

Victoria Police will get access to mugshots from Australian Federal Police and every force nationwide early next year.

Existing arrangements only allow them to access images from Victoria.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson told the Herald Sun: “It will be a huge improvement.

“Criminals travel across borders.

“They do not stop at police and state boundaries.

“They travel far and wide.

“That capability will be a significant development for law enforcement across the country.”

The facial images will accessible through a new national biometric service operated through the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

It will incorporate the existing national fingerprint database.

It comes in the wake of the terror attacks in London, that left eight people dead including two Australians.

And following the deadly siege in Brighton when Yacqub Khayre killed apartment worker Nick Hao and took another woman taken hostage on Monday.

Khayre was gunned down by police during the siege, treated by authorities as an act of terror.

The incident led to further raids across Melbourne’s northern suburbs this morning.

Victoria Police has already used facial recognition to solve crimes and bring suspects before court.

Mr Paterson, chair of the intelligence commission’s national criminal intelligence capability committee, said the technology was primarily to investigate crime but could be used to identify suspects involved in terror threats or an attack.

“ASIO and police have spoken about the number of persons of interest we have in context of terrorism in the community,’’ he said.

“If we have a picture of someone that is unidentified doing some sort of activity we can run that against our national databases and see if we can identify that person.”

Police officers remove a body following the deadly siege in Brighton on Monday. Picture: AFP

The Federal Attorney-General was looking at adding other government agency photos to the national database.

“That could include visa photographs, it could include passport photographs, it could include indeed every driver's licence photograph nationally into the database,’’ Mr Paterson said.

“Even people that have not had contact with police before and had their photograph taken do commit crime.

“People have nothing to fear from facial recognition. It is not big brother watching. But if you are a criminal or a criminal person of interest then you might have something to worry about.”

Stills from CCTV cameras can be used for facial recognition but technology advancements could eventually flag people of interest as they are filmed live.

The moment London police gunned down the terrorists who attacked innocent people with knives. Source: Instagram/Gabriele Sciotto

Thirty cameras — fed through Victoria Police’s hi-tech Monitoring and Assessment Centre — are being added to Melbourne’s CBD network of 68 devices.

Police Minister Lisa Neville said cameras at suburban train stations, major roads and town centres could also be added.

The threat of terror made such improvements especially important.

“You’re alert to it, you’re aware of it, you’re conscious of it,’’ Ms Neville said.

“It’s really about making sure that the police have the resources to target and watch and monitor those people who are a risk.

“The counter-terrorism teams across our agency and nationally are world class.”

Acting Melbourne Lord Mayor Arron Wood said the councils’ CCTV cameras were monitored around-the-clock.

Victoria Police was alerted to issues and could access vision in real-time.

The locations of the new cameras, part of a $10 million city safety upgrade, were yet to be decided.

“These additional cameras will expand the already significant CCTV network in the city and help Victoria Police with their job of preventing and fighting crime and ensuring the public safety of all Melburnians,’’ Cr Wood said.