UK government defending police use of facial recognition

The UK government is defending police use of facial recognition technology – both in court and on the public stage.

On Tuesday, the High Court in London heard a case against the city’s Metropolitan police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) brought by digital rights advocacy group Big Brother Watch and a campaigner called Shaun Thompson.

In 2024, Thompson, a black anti-knife crime community worker from London, was detained by police officers after a facial recognition system produced a false match. Thompson’s case is being backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has pledged to provide submissions and evidence arguing that the Met Police’s policies regarding LFR go against the European Convention on Human Rights.

The hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday with judgment scheduled for a later date, the BBC reports.

During Tuesday’s trial, plaintiffs argued that police use of LFR risked arbitrary and discriminatory use. The lawyer representing the duo, Dan Squires KC, noted that police forces have been increasing the use of the technology exponentially.

“If there are insufficient constraints on ‘where’ the police can use LFR, such that any transport hub, high street, or other public location can be targeted, it will be impossible for people to travel across London without their biometric data being taken and processed,” says Squires.

The Met Police attorney, Anya Proops KC, said that searching for people in large cities was akin to “looking for stray needles in an enormous, exceptionally dense haystack.”

“LFR can spot the ‘needles’ in a way that officers simply cannot, enabling sought persons who would otherwise go undetected, or be at large for much longer periods, to be located by the MPS,” she notes.

The technology helps the police with “minimal” invasions of privacy: The system used by the Met police automatically deletes data from people who are not on a watchlist, says Proops.

Earlier in January, the Met Police stated that facial recognition has contributed to London’s record-low murder rates in 2025. The police arrested 1,135 people last year as a result of using the technology.

Home Office Secretary responds to criticism of LFR expansion

After the UK Home Office announced the addition of 40 new live facial recognition (LFR) vans as part of large-scale policing reforms earlier this week, the country’s human rights and privacy activists described the move as “one of the most significant threats to civil liberties in the history of British policing.”

“Rolling out powerful surveillance tools while a consultation is still underway undermines public trust and shows disregard for our fundamental rights,” says Ruth Ehrlich, director of external relations at campaign group Liberty.

Ehrlich referred to the lack of a unified legal framework that would govern police use of the technology in the UK. She also argued that police attempts to use AI and facial recognition have been “plagued by failure,” including errors related to minors and black people.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood responded on Tuesday that consultation is taking place on “appropriate safeguards” related to facial recognition. According to the newly released Home Office white paper on policing modernization, the deployment of AI technologies such as facial recognition will be supported by a new regulatory framework.

Last year, the UK government also announced it was consulting on guidance that will define how forces can use live facial recognition.

“What I would say to people that are very motivated by sort of campaigning on civil liberties is that you can’t enjoy any of your liberties in any country if you’re not safe,” Mahmood told the BBC.

The Home Secretary added that the technology is being used to catch “prolific offenders” and that CCTVs exist in many shops.

“For 20 years we’ve been talking about Big Brother societies, maybe for even longer than that, I just really reject that analysis,” says Mahmood.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  live facial recognition  |  London Metropolitan Police  |  police