POLICE will deploy live facial recognition (LFR) at this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival, sparking condemnation from civil liberties campaigners who branded the technology “dangerous and discriminatory.”

The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that more than 100 people had been arrested in the run-up to the event, part of what it described as “intelligence-led interventions” to keep the streets safe. 

Twenty-one people were recalled to prison, while 11 firearms and more than 40 knives were seized.

Commander Charmain Brenyah, the Met’s spokeswoman for the carnival, said around one million people are expected to attend over Sunday and Monday.

Ms Brenyah said: “Our policing plan makes tackling serious violence a priority.

“We hope that this police activity will be a significant deterrent for those who otherwise might have been planning to come and engage in violence and other criminality.”

LFR cameras will be used at entry and exit points around the carnival, along with additional screening arches and stop-and-search powers. 

It comes as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) warned earlier this week that the Met’s rules and safeguards “fall short” and risk a “chilling effect” on civil liberties.

Big Brother Watch interim director Rebecca Vincent said it is “worrying to see the Met resorting to the use of invasive” LFR technology at the carnival after scrapping it when the trial involving the EHRC led to “widespread outcry on the grounds of bias.”

She told the Star: “We know that LFR is less accurate in scanning minority faces, so using it to target attendees of this beloved cultural celebration is particularly sinister. 

“Plans to use this dangerous and discriminatory technology should be immediately scrapped.”

Ms Vincent said there was “no legislative basis” for the mass collection of biometric data, leaving police to “write their own rules with no accountability or oversight.”

“Capturing biometrics on a mass scale will not make London safer,” she said.

“The Met should channel its resources into a proper on-the-ground police presence to deal with actual criminals rather than compromising the privacy rights of millions of innocent carnival-goers and local residents.”

Two people were murdered at the carnival last year.

Matthew Phillip, the event’s chief executive, said organisers work closely with police to try to keep people safe.