Industry News from Yes Insurance

Facial Recognition Cameras (FRCs) have received stark criticism from motorist safety campaigners Safe Speed. Reports last week confirmed that drivers in Banbury were to be the first to experience the system.

The police initiative is supposed to help cut down the number of incidents where drivers faced with points on their licenses for speeding claim that they were not in control of the vehicle in order to pass the penalty on to someone else.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, said: "Facial recognition is a technology capable of great abuse and should be reserved for serious cases and difficult investigations."

Mr Smith went on to highlight that serious motoring criminals could thwart efforts to identify them by simply wearing a form of disguise like dark glasses.

"Motorists have had enough persecution - the technical enforcement of motoring law hasn't improved road safety and never will. Instead we need to deal with driver quality and truly effective policing against those causing danger," he said,

In Mr Smith's view, the police should be encouraged to "do their job properly and catch criminals, not persecute motorists". He also claimed that the only winners of the scheme if it were implemented across the country would be "the snake oil salesmen who make the stuff".

FRCs are also designed to make it easier for the police to identify persistent offenders on the road. By removing them, they hope to make the nation's highways a safer place and that could have a positive impact on car insurance premiums.