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Big Brother fears as police to introduce facial recognition cameras
By Graham Grant, Home Affairs Editor For The Scottish Daily Mail
17:21 20 Jun 2024, updated 17:25 20 Jun 2024
- Technology could be used to crack down on shoplifting and those breaking bail
- But civil liberty groups raise fears over ‘hi-tech police state’
Police are planning to introduce controversial live facial recognition in Scotland, sparking a fresh row over ‘Orwellian’ technology.
The Mail can reveal Police Scotland is looking at bringing in the cameras with the aim of cracking down on shoplifters and people who have broken bail conditions.
Officers in police vans monitor live footage and hi-tech software checks the images against a database, flagging up potential matches with wanted criminals.
The move is part of a series of ambitious proposed changes to use technology to fight crime – but last night there was concern over the possible threat to civil liberties.
Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, said live facial recognition technology is ‘incompatible with a democratic society and should be banned’.
He said: ‘Britain needs to have a proper conversation about the role big data and AI [artificial intelligence] plays in our policing, rather than allowing the government and the police to cobble together patchwork legal justifications to experiment on the public with intrusive and Orwellian technology.
‘We’re sleepwalking into a high-tech police state.’
A spokesman added: ‘At a time when liberal democracies around the world and bodies like the EU are banning or scaling back the use of this Orwellian technology, which is rarely seen outside of Russia and China, expanding the use of AI-powered surveillance would be a step backwards for human rights in Scotland and would put the privacy of millions of Scots at risk.
‘In England, the Metropolitan Police are currently facing a legal challenge regarding the use of live facial recognition in the capital.
‘Police Scotland should learn from the multi-million pound mistake made by the Met in experimenting with this technology in London – and keep it out of Scotland.’
The UK Government announced earlier this year that mobile police units would be deployed to English high streets, with facial recognition used in ‘crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police – including repeat shoplifters’.
At a conference on biometrics – for example facial recognition, DNA, AI, and fingerprinting – Assistant Chief Constable Andy Freeburn said: ‘We have a really strong foundation for looking at some of these higher-end technologies now – we are watching what those other forces are doing and trying to learn from them.’
He said he was ‘not going to put a timeframe on it [the introduction of live facial recognition] but I think we should start exploring it’.
Mr Freeburn told the conference hosted by the Scottish Police Authority in Edinburgh that there was a statutory duty to keep people safe but this had to be balanced with maintaining human rights.
He said: ‘I think we do need to get into the difficult and potentially divisive topic of live facial recognition technology; we need to look at the limits of AI – and I hope that today is the first step in a wider debate.
‘We need to make a proportionate use of technology to keep the public safe in our increasingly digital world.’
Cameras are focused on a specific area so that when people pass through their images are streamed directly to the live facial recognition system.
This system contains a watchlist – a list of offenders wanted by the police and/or the courts, or those who pose a risk of harm to themselves or others.
The UK Government has said it is ramping up the use of facial recognition technology to help catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting in the first place.
Backed by a £55.5million investment over the next four years, the police south of the Border will be able to further roll out facial recognition technology.
This will include £4million for bespoke mobile units that can be deployed to high streets across the country, with live facial recognition used in crowded areas.
The mobile units will take live footage of crowds in towns and on high streets, comparing images to specific people wanted by the police or banned from that location.
Police will then be alerted so they can track down offenders.
Scotland’s Biometrics Commissioner, Dr Brian Plastow, has said Police Scotland had ‘never deployed live facial recognition technology capable of mass public space surveillance in Scotland’.
But he said there are circumstances where the ‘future use of such technology should be available to the Chief Constable as a strategic or tactical option for potential deployment’.
Since 2015, several police forces across the UK have begun to use this technology in public places as part of targeted crackdowns and to police busy events.
However, London’s Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police have been among the keenest adopters of the technology.
The Metropolitan Police have already deployed live facial recognition a staggering 73 times this year, recording 146,157 faces and leading to 209 arrests.
The police and Home Office argue that these large-scale surveillance operations are justified by their results.
But civil rights groups have raised concerns over the use of live facial recognition, arguing that the technology is overly invasive.
Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: ‘It is right for Police Scotland to embrace new technology to fight crime, and not be left behind the rest of the UK as happened with body-worn cameras [which are about to be introduced in Scotland].
‘However, it’s also vital for SNP ministers to ensure full adherence to the law and to ensure that the public are kept fully informed.’
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the use of biometric data was ‘integral to some of the key societal issues of our time, touching on human rights and ethics’.
She said: ‘I don’t have a scientific background but am able to look on with awe at what is and what could be possible – and at the skills and expertise of some of the people who work in this sector.’
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