By Yiannis Haniotakis

Up to one million people are expected to flood the streets of western London on Monday for the last day of the famous Notting Hill Carnival, the largest street party in Europe. This year, the Caribbean culture celebration is being carried out under the strict surveillance of the Police, which applies a lively face recognition technology with the aim of arresting serious criminals who could disrupt the event.

The celebrations began early Sunday morning with “J’Overt”, a traditional Caribbean ceremony where participants are covered with paints and powders. On the streets of Notting Hill, tanks and music bands roused the crowd, while the flags of the Caribbean islands waved on the shoulders of the carnivalists.

Tom Bennett, mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, said: “It is one of the most important street parties in the world that celebrates the Caribbean culture – from dance, music, costumes, and all that the Caribbean community has offered to him.”

At 3 noon on Sunday, there was three minutes of silence in memory of the 2017 fire victims in the Grendel Pyrgos, as well as in the memory of Celsus Curine, a Antigua carpenter who was murdered in a racist attack in Notting Hill in 1959.

Strict security measures and arrests

The London Metropolitan Police made 140 arrests on Sunday, of which 35 were at the entrances of the event, with 13 of them being the result of positive identification through live face recognition technology.

Fifteen people were arrested for attacking police officers, while a police officer was hospitalized with a wound in hand. “We will ensure that all police officers receive proper support,” the police said. Twenty -one suspects were held for possession of an offensive weapon and 52 arrests concerned drug offenses.

Already on Friday, the Metropolitan Police had arrested 100 people, seizing 11 firearms and over 40 knives as part of a operation to prevent violence in the carnival. Twenty -one people were taken back to prison and at least 266 entry into the event has been banned.

At least 7,000 police officers will be on Monday, and will be valid until 2am on Tuesday, known as “section 60” that allows extensive physical checks without reasonable suspicions.

At the same time, the Metropolitan Police have developed a living face recognition technology “at the entrances of the carnival but not within its limits” to identify wanted suspects.

The system connects cameras to a tracking list containing suspect photos. As people go through, their facial features are scanned for positive matching, alerting police officers to stop them.

Political rights and racism organizations called on the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowle, to abandon technology, describing it as “a mass surveillance tool that treats all carnivalists as potential suspects”.

In response, Rowle said: “When we know that live face recognition technology can help identify people with whom the police should speak, and these people are a risk to public security, it is perfectly reasonable to ask: Why not use it in this framework?”

Increased measures are taken in the wake of last year’s event, which, according to police representatives, was “tarnished by unacceptable violence”. Specifically, two people died in violent incidents that occurred during and after the carnival, and eight non -fatal knife attacks were reported.

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event dedicated to the Caribbean culture, which has been taking place in London since 1966, on the streets of Notting Hill in Kensington, every year on the August holiday. It is Europe’s largest outdoor party, attracting over two million visitors over a three -day period.