The use of a controversial form of facial recognition technology by the UK’s biggest police force has soared, using it in more than three times as many deployments last year as in previous years.
The Metropolitan used the technology 117 times between January and August, compared with 32 times between 2020 and 2023, according to figures compiled by the City Hall Greens party of London MPs. The Met’s live facial recognition deployment records revealed that 770,966 people’s faces were scanned in the capital over five years. The scanning technology was used for a total of 716 hours and 25 minutes, with an average duration of just over five hours. Croydon and Westminster were the most targeted boroughs. This is despite some academics criticizing the use of face scanning as inaccurate, biased and racially discriminatory, with false identification leading to false arrests. But the Met says the tool will help prevent and detect crime and help track down people on wanted lists. Some policymakers have also encouraged the police to use facial scanning more widely.
City Hall Greens have previously called for restrictions on the use of such technology. “Live facial recognition surveillance turns the public into two-legged ID cards, subject to constant police action,” said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, a campaign group fighting to limit government surveillance. “This is one of the most serious threats to privacy in a Carlo is currently pursuing legal action against the Met Police’s use of live facial recognition technology, which was jointly filed with a misidentified victim.
Lindsey Chiswick, the Met’s director of intelligence and head of facial recognition technology at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the police “use a threshold where there is no bias according to tests by the National Physical Laboratory”. He added that the live facial recognition technology used by the Met has been tested to be 89 per cent accurate and people’s biometrics are deleted “immediately” if they are not on a watch list. “We find it useful, an effective and precise tool. We’ve had very good results,” he said, adding that deployment areas such as Croydon and Westminster have high crime rates. Chiswick said the Met’s use of live facial recognition technology had resulted in more than 360 arrests this year, and more than 30 sex offenders who were found to have violated their release conditions were arrested. The use of facial recognition was also affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, before which the device was just introduced – he added it made sense to use the technology”.
Both the current Labor government and the previous Conservative government supported the introduction of the technology. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called for the “wider use” of facial recognition technology as part of the police response to the summer’s anti-immigration and far-right riots. Last year, the Home Office outlined its efforts to increase the use of facial recognition technology and new biometric systems nationwide and said it was encouraging police to expand use of the device.
According to Charlie Whelton, policy and campaign director at the human rights organization Liberty, “we’re talking about the regulatory wild west of invasive technologies,” which successive governments have not addressed at all. will be used to monitor and harass people with skin”. The Home Office says facial recognition technology is an “important tool to help police identify and bring criminals to justice” and that its use by police is “continually” under review.
Source: sg.hu
