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South Wales police try on-demand facial recognition app

Oversight and data compliance still pending
South Wales police try on-demand facial recognition app
 

Police in South Wales and Gwent will become the first police units in the UK to use mobile apps with facial recognition that can scan a person’s face in “near real-time.”

The app, known as operator-initiated facial recognition (OIFR), allows law enforcement to take a photograph of a person’s face with a mobile phone and match it to a predetermined database. The technology, however, has quickly come under scrutiny from rights groups that warn that police searches could be conducted against thousands of photos of innocent people.

Police say that the OIFR will enable quick identification of suspects and missing persons. The facial recognition feature can also be used when a person is found unconscious or dead, refuses to identify themselves or provides a fake name.

“This mobile phone app means that with the taking of a single photograph which is compared to the police database, officers can easily and quickly answer the question of ‘Are you really the person we are looking for?” says Trudi Meyrick, assistant chief constable to the South Wales Police.

The app has already been tested by 70 officers across South Wales, securing quick arrests and detentions. However, digital rights group Big Brother Watch says that mobile facial recognition could create a “dangerous imbalance” between the public’s rights and the police’s powers.

For years, regulators and rights groups have been warning that the police are storing images of innocent people in its national database which may be used for facial recognition checks. This is despite a high court decision in 2012 ruling that keeping custody images of people who faced no charge or were charged and then acquitted is unlawful.

“South Wales Police will search against thousands of unlawfully held photos every time they do a face scan, and they should be fixing this ongoing industrial-scale privacy breach rather than exploiting these photos for yet more surveillance,” says Jake Hurfurt, head of Research and Investigations at Big Brother Watch.

According to the organization, South Wales Police has disproportionately targeted ethnic minorities for face scans, which may further undermine trust in the police.

The police note that in private places such as houses, schools, medical facilities and places of worship the app will only be used in situations carrying a risk of significant harm. Photos taken through the app will not be retained.

“The use of this technology always involves human decision-making and oversight,” says Gwent Police Assistant Chief Constable Nick McLain.

Biometric oversight remains limited in England and Wales

While the UK government has been equipping police with more facial recognition surveillance tools, privacy and data watchdogs have been warning of lacking oversight.

Rishi Sunak’s government had planned to eliminate the post of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, transferring some of the responsibilities for biometrics regulation to the Information Commissioner’s Office. However, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI) that was supposed to enable this change was abandoned in May due to the UK elections.

Since then, England and Wales have had limited oversight, according to the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Brian Plastow. The Home Office has been “gapping” the position since Tony Eastaugh left in mid-August, Plastow tells Biometric Update in an email.

Eastaugh joined the Police Digital Service after leaving the dual-commissioner post.

“At a time when the new UK Government is advocating greater use of surveillance technologies such as Live Facial Recognition, the Commissioner is now calling on the UK Government to end its paradigm of indecisiveness by appointing a Commissioner for England and Wales to restore the independent oversight,” Plastow’s office wrote last week in response to the England and Wales Commissioners’ Annual Report.

New forms of biometric technology are far from the only concern, however, as Plastow notes that “National Security Determinations (including in Scotland) are stacking up with no independent oversight being exercised.”

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