Rights groups push back on UK police use of facial recognition amid far-right riots

After the UK government announced more deployments of facial recognition to curb far-right riots, rights groups have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reverse the decision, calling it a “chilling precedent” that “threatens the democratic rights” of the communities he is seeking to protect.

On Friday, Amnesty International, Access Now, Statewatch, Privacy International, Big Brother Watch and 22 other groups sent a letter to Starmer requesting a meeting.

“We urge you to rethink your plans to expand the use of facial recognition surveillance in the UK and would ask that you meet with us, as you have with police chiefs, to discuss the rights and equalities impacts of this AI mass surveillance,” the letter says.

At the beginning of August, the UK Prime Minister announced a tougher stance against violent disorder which swept through parts of the country following the Southport stabbing attack, which left three children dead and ten other people injured. Following the decision, London’s Metropolitan Police announced last week that they would use retrospective facial recognition to help officers identify offenders, even while wearing masks.

In their letter, rights organizations pointed out that police use of facial recognition has no explicit legal basis in the UK. The legality of the Met Police’s deployment of the technology is currently under a legal challenge after a case of misidentification, they added. The case was brought to court by digital rights group Big Brother Watch.

The groups argue that live facial recognition continues to have issues with accuracy, bias and discrimination. Starmer’s plan to expand the police’s use of facial recognition surveillance came on the same day as the European Union’s AI Act came into force, prohibiting the technology.

“Should UK police forces expand the use of live facial recognition under your leadership, it would make our country an outlier in the democratic world,” the letter said.

As of Monday, the UK police have made almost 1,000 arrests while more than 500 people have been charged, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. The law enforcement body noted that the situation in England, Scotland and Wales has “somewhat stabilized” over the past few days. Northern Ireland, however, continues to experience unrest.

Scottish police exploring surveillance tech from BriefCam

Police in Scotland are exploring video analysis tools from BriefCam, which helps law enforcement track suspects quicker by matching CCTV footage for items such as clothing, bags, hats and others.

BriefCam’s technology is already being used by local authorities for traffic management, Police Scotland said in a Freedom of Information (FOI) response. The law enforcement agency, however, says that it has no plans to deploy facial recognition through the system.

“Whilst BriefCam does have facial matching capabilities, Police Scotland will not be using this element, and the functionality will be disabled at an engineering level,” the police says.

Despite these promises, critics fear that the potential expansion of BriefCam’s system could lay the path toward facial recognition, The Daily Mail reports.

“Police Scotland must be very careful to ensure that it is only used when necessary and steps are taken to protect the public’s privacy, as otherwise we face this kind of technology becoming normalized and creeping further into our daily lives,” Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch told the paper.

Israeli-founded and U.S.-based BriefCam found itself at the center of attention last year when a media report accused the French national police of secretly using the company’s facial recognition for eight years, despite prohibitions on the use of the biometric systems by law enforcement.

Owned by Canon Group, the company provides video content analysis software to private and public organizations, including searching and identifying objects and people of interest, real-time critical event alerts and other video content analysis.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  BriefCam  |  facial recognition  |  London Metropolitan Police  |  police  |  real-time biometrics  |  Scotland  |  UK  |  video analytics