UK human rights regulator to argue against police use of live facial recognition

The UK’s human rights regulator has received permission to intervene in an upcoming judicial review examining whether the London Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) complies with human rights law.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will provide submissions and evidence in a case involving Shaun Thompson, an anti-knife crime community worker from London who was detained by police officers after a facial recognition system produced a false match. Thompson, who is black, has received High Court permission to sue the Met Police with the help of digital rights advocacy group Big Brother Watch.

The EHRC plans to argue that the Met Police’s current policies regarding live facial recognition go against the rights laid out by the European Convention on Human Rights, including a right to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association.

While the regulator believes that live facial recognition has value for law enforcement agencies, it also argues that the technology is being used by the police in an intrusive way.

“There must be clear rules which guarantee that live facial recognition technology is used only where necessary, proportionate and constrained by appropriate safeguards,” says EHRC Chief Executive John Kirkpatrick. “We believe that the Metropolitan Police’s current policy falls short of this standard.”

The EHRC also welcomed the police’s adoption of higher face-match thresholds for its NEC facial recognition system, which independent research has shown produces no statistically significant bias. However, even low error rates can translate to significant numbers of false identifications when using large watchlists, says the agency.

London and South Wales Police boast LFR arrests as debates continue

Police in London have announced the latest arrest figures for the Notting Hill Carnival: The annual Caribbean Carnival event, held on August 24th and 25th, led to 528 arrests, including  61 arrests following an identification using live facial recognition.

The Metropolitan Police hailed the LFR deployments as “particularly successful,” helping officers to identify almost 100 people of interest who would likely have gone unnoticed in the crowds. In addition to LFR cameras and a police helicopter, 7,000 officers were deployed on each of the two days, according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward.

“Our policing operation was focused on keeping people safe by targeting those who were coming to Carnival to cause harm to others, so the reduction in incidents of serious violence compared to previous years is very welcome,” says Ward.

The South Wales Police also shared an update on its Safer Streets Summer Initiative last week, noting that LFR deployments have helped officers identify shoplifters, thieves and people with an arrest warrant.

Aside from LFR, the law enforcement agency has also been relying on retrospective facial recognition as well as Operator-Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR), which allows police officers to take a photograph of a person’s face with a mobile phone and match it to a predetermined database. Retrospective facial recognition has so far produced more than 10,000 matches using images from CCTV, mobile phones and doorbell footage.

The South Wales Police highlighted that six years have passed since a false alert was created for somebody in South Wales, despite more than 80 deployments of LFR. There has also never been a wrongful arrest, the police force adds.

While the Met Police and the South Wales Police celebrated their successes, Liberal Democrat MP for Horsham John Milne called on the Sussex Police to offer assurances that citizens’ rights will be upheld during the planned introduction of LFR in the area.

Local residents and business owners are crying out for an effective tackling of criminal activity, including shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. Horsham residents, however, also want reassurances that the technology will be used responsibly and transparently, Milne writes in a letter to Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne published last Saturday.

“What we cannot allow is the introduction of powerful surveillance tools without clear safeguards, I urge our Sussex PCC to give clarity on this,” he says.

Horesham also referenced the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) finding that the Metropolitan Police’s use of LFR is likely unlawful.

The Sussex Police has received two LFR vans to use across the county. Commissioner Bourne has recently criticized the UK’s inaction towards shoplifting, blaming the crime spike on the lack of meaningful deterrents and the UK’s data protection laws.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  data privacy  |  facial recognition  |  human rights  |  live facial recognition  |  London Metropolitan Police  |  police  |  real-time biometrics