Facial recognition for policing – what do we expect?

By Professor Fraser Sampson, former UK Biometrics & Surveillance Camera Commissioner

Last summer when I stood down as the UK’s first combined Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner the government was about to scrap what little legislation there was covering this important area for policing. In any event the general election meant the bill was scrapped and, as it turns out, the government itself, so we are back to square one. And square one is not sustainable.

Facial recognition has already made it onto the Prime Minister’s agenda and the regulatory framework enabling its accountable use by the police remains incomplete, inconsistent and incoherent.

The police in England and Wales have a successful history of adopting innovative technology (think TASERs, breathalysers, DNA profiling, bodyworn video) and deploying it accountably in the interests of a more effective operational response to emerging threats. Under current law the government must produce a Surveillance Camera Code of Practice setting out how all public space surveillance systems operated by the police and local authorities must be used. It expressly addresses the use of live facial recognition but there is one central point to which I would draw the new government’s attention: the overarching purpose. The Code is aimed at enabling the use of technology in a way that the public expect and to a standard that maintains their trust and confidence. The Code is a good start but does not go far enough and the conditions needed to empower the police to use the many technological advances in this critical area are unfinished business.

The debate around facial recognition in policing has become polarised but neither demonisation nor fetishisation will deliver what is needed from what is available. The reliability of facial recognition algorithms has developed significantly and continues to do so. With some police leaders acknowledging facial recognition technology as game changing technology, AI represents a seismic shift in the policing landscape – technologically, legally and societally and I would urge ministers to revisit the question of how to balance what is possible with what is permissible and above all what is expected.

About the author

Professor Fraser Sampson, former UK Biometrics & Surveillance Camera Commissioner, is Professor of Governance and National Security at CENTRIC and a non-executive director at Facewatch.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner  |  facial recognition  |  Fraser Sampson  |  police  |  UK  |  video surveillance