Broadside from Scotland: UK is undemocratic with biometric surveillance

Scotland’s biometrics commissioner is warning the nation is moving toward autocracy and inappropriate biometric surveillance is making “democratic backsliding” easier.

Commissioner Brian Plastow has posted on the commission’s site a 12-page call to arms, urging UK citizens and government officials to reject blaming legal migrants and the unhoused for social problems rather than the inaction of political leaders.

Plastow has advocated for police use of biometric surveillance. In fact, he writes, he would support live facial recognition in Scotland in proscribed circumstances including threat and risk.

But Plastow has also regularly pushed hard against what he considered government overreach.

His latest statement does not come as a surprise.

Plastow’s document ranges widely but focuses on biometrics generally and facial recognition specifically. He points to what he says is the disarming of independent regulators, of which he is one.

“Scotland may be sleepwalking towards its place within a UK surveillance state,” he writes.

Under the guise of making the nation safe from perceived threats among migrants and the unhoused, Plastow says, London is centralizing member states’ powers.

England and Wales commissioners overseeing biometrics and surveillance cameras have for 12 years been gradually sidelined, he says, and hamstrung as London appeared to make moves to abuse biometric databases.

Another former commissioner, Fraser Sampson, shared concerns about his growing inability to trust London on biometrics that mesh well with Plastow’s.

At least one previous commissioner raised concerns about the reliability of facial recognition software used for historical searches to no avail.

And while it presently illegal for police to get “automatic access to UK passport and UK driving license image for facial recognition,” Plastow says the UK minister of state for crime, policing and fire has said that policy will be reversed.

Plastow cited that and other moves that he describes as “backsliding and disempowerment.”

Scotland doesn’t need to follow England’s steps, he said, which could be leading to a far less democratic future for the UK.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  police  |  Scottish Biometrics Commissioner  |  UK  |  video surveillance