UK police forces could roll out facial recognition cameras using AI

UK police forces could soon roll out facial recognition cameras after largest ever deployment of AI technology at King’s Coronation – but privacy campaigners claim ‘Orwellian’ surveillance is ‘enormously inaccurate’ and ‘enforces discrimination’

• Policing minister Chris Philip is said to be pushing the expansion  

Police forces across the country could soon be rolling out facial recognition cameras despite fears it could lead to widespread surveillance.

Policing minister Chris Philp is understood to be pushing behind closed doors to expand the use of the controversial AI-driven technology.

Mounted atop police vans or on officers’ body armour, the cameras work by scanning every face in a crowd to find known troublemakers.

The move has sparked anger among privacy campaigners, who have branded the ‘Orwellian’ cameras overly intrusive and claim they remain largely inaccurate.

Today, the UK’s surveillance tsar said it was now the ‘de facto’ policy of the Government to put facial recognition at the very heart of British policing.

The King’s coronation earlier this month saw the largest deployment of AI policing technology in ‘world history’, Professor Fraser Sampson (pictured) said 

Official figures have revealed an estimated 68,000 royal fan’s faces were scanned across the day – but only two arrests were made. Pictured: Officers arresting protesters from Just Stop Oil during the King’s Coronation  

The King’s coronation earlier this month saw the largest deployment of AI policing technology in ‘world history’, Professor Fraser Sampson said.

Official figures have revealed an estimated 68,000 royal fan’s faces were scanned across the day – but only two arrests were made.

Prof Sampson, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, has confirmed he was briefed by the Home Office of Mr Philp’s ‘desire to embed facial recognition technology in policing and is considering what more the government can do to support the police on this’.

The technology has already been trialled multiple times by South Wales Police, Leicestershire Police, and the Met Police over the past five years, including at events such as Remembrance Sunday.

It works by measuring and ‘mapping’ the facial features of every person in a crowd in real time and converting them into a numerical code.

Each code is then put through a secret police watch list of dangerous criminals wanted by the courts.

Forces are also understood to also be looking at ‘retroactive’ facial recognition, where faces can be scanned in previously captured footage.

Critics have warned the technology remains inaccurate and is trained on biased data that only reinforces racism and discrimination policing.

The technology has already been trialled multiple times by South Wales Police, Leicestershire Police, and the Met Police over the past five years, including at events such as Remembrance Sunday. Pictured: Police officers protecting a facial recognition van during a lockdown protest in London 2021

The European Union is moving to ban the technology in public spaces through its upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act.

Prof Sampson said he was ‘convinced’ however that the technology was far too useful in the fight against crime and terrorism ‘to turn our noses up at’.

While admitting the ‘ship has sailed’ in stopping police using it, he said the question was now about balancing its effective use in fighting crime with the rights of citizens.

But he warned that the UK needed better oversight, adding: ‘We may not be that far away from using an AI like ChatGPT to draft warrants or witness statements, yet we have the scantest regulatory framework under which those using the technology will be held to account.’

Madeleine Stone, policy officer at Big Brother Watch, said: ‘Live facial recognition technology is frighteningly intrusive and enormously inaccurate.

‘This suspiciousless mass surveillance tool turns us into walking barcodes that police officers can scan at will. It has no place in British policing.

‘Instead of trying to quietly push this Orwellian technology on police forces, the Government should urgently halt its rollout, given the enormous risks it poses to our privacy and civil liberties.’

Sophia Akram, policy manager at Open Rights Group said: ‘Facial recognition is intrusive mass surveillance, which invades people’s privacy, undermines the right to be presumed innocent and can deter people from exercising their right to protest.

‘Expanding the use of facial recognition when there are widespread doubts as to its efficacy and accuracy is irresponsible and will further diminish trust in the police.’

A Home Office spokeswoman said: ‘The Government is committed to empower the police to use new technologies like facial recognition in a fair and proportionate way.

‘Facial recognition plays a crucial role in helping the police tackle serious offences including murder, knife crime, rape, child sexual exploitation and terrorism.’

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