Rights and equalities groups condemn Police Scotland’s decision to continue introduction of live facial recognition surveillance

• Police Scotland to continue work on introducing controversial live facial recognition technology
• Rights and equalities groups have condemned this decision as “an alarming step towards a Scottish surveillance state”
• Current police use of the technology is “unlawful” according to rights regulator

Rights and equalities groups have condemned Police Scotland’s announcement that it will continue work to introduce live facial recognition technology, warning of “racial injustice, creeping surveillance and democratic erosion”. 14 rights and racial justice organisations have called on Police Scotland to “immediately abandon any plans to introduce live facial recognition for public surveillance.”

Police Scotland’s Chief Constable announced last year that the force would explore the use of the AI technology. Despite a consultation finding that almost half (48%) of Scots would feel uncomfortable with the rollout of the surveillance technology, Police Scotland has announced it will continue to pursue the introduction of live facial recognition across Scotland. Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors told the Scottish Police Authority that the force “will move ahead” with “the work around live facial recognition” at a meeting last week.

Live facial recognition has faced criticism from rights and equalities groups across the globe due to its impact on privacy, freedom of expression and its well-documented racial and gender biases. International research, as well as testing of the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police’s facial recognition algorithm, has identified disproportionately higher inaccuracy rates when attempting to identify people of colour and women.

Live facial recognition has been used by police forces in England and Wales and has been subject to several legal challenges. In 2019, the Court of Appeal found that South Wales Police’s use of live facial recognition technology was unlawful and had violated human rights, equalities and data protection law. The Metropolitan Police is currently facing legal action after an anti-knife crime community volunteer, Shaun Thompson, was misidentified by the technology and wrongly flagged as a criminal. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has intervened in the challenge as it believes the force is using the technology unlawfully.

In 2020, the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing held an inquiry into Police Scotland’s stated ambition to introduce live facial recognition technology by 2026. It found “no justifiable basis for Police Scotland to invest in this technology” and stated that its introduction “would be a radical departure from Police Scotland’s fundamental principle of policing by consent.”

Police use of live facial recognition is not enabled by any specific piece of legislation and has not been authorised by parliament. Police forces have been left to write their own policies about how and where it can be used. In June, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission jointly wrote to Police Scotland raising serious concerns about the use of live facial recognition technology, stating that its use could be “open to legal challenge and risk reputational damage to Scottish policing.”

Madeleine Stone, Senior Advocacy Officer at Big Brother Watch, said:

“The decision from Police Scotland to explore the introduction of live facial recognition surveillance is deeply disappointing and flies in the face of recommendations from rights and equalities groups across Scotland and the UK. Live facial recognition technology has no place in a democratic society and poses a grave risk to the rights and freedoms of the Scottish public.

There is no specific legislation governing police use of this technology, meaning that police forces across the UK are already deploying this technology absent of meaningful accountability or oversight. Police Scotland should instead take this opportunity to lead by example and pursue a rights-respecting approach to policing, rather than repeating the mistakes of English and Welsh forces who have invested taxpayers’ money in this Orwellian technology.

This decision represents an alarming step towards a Scottish surveillance state. Police Scotland must abandon this disturbing plan and the UK Government must urgently rein in police use of this intrusive technology.”

Liz Thomson, Scotland Programme Director at Amnesty International, said:

“Police Scotland’s claim to be a rights-based force is entirely at odds with any attempt to introduce a tool of mass surveillance to operational policing.

Around the world, facial recognition technologies are being used to stifle protest and harass minority communities. These systems violate the right to privacy, threaten the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to equality and non-discrimination.

In recent months the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland hosted the Metropolitan Police in Edinburgh to reassure Scottish civil society that LFR could be used without detrimental human rights impact. Yet just last week the Equality and Human Rights Commission publicly warned that the Met’s policy on LFR use is unlawful.

It’s time Police Scotland started listening. If the force continues with its own plans for LFR it will be dragging Scotland backwards on human rights.

Jatin Haria, Executive Director at the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), said:

“The Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights is deeply concerned about Police Scotland’s decision to explore using Live Facial Recognition technology in Scottish policing. This technology may offer the illusion of security, but its real-world application consistently tells a different story – one of racial injustice, creeping surveillance and democratic erosion.

We believe that introducing this harmful and biased technology would significantly undermine the principle of policing by consent in Scotland, negatively impact community-police relations and contradict Police Scotland’s “absolute commitment to championing equality and becoming an anti-racist service.”

We are disappointed to learn that the concerns raised by equality and human rights groups have not been listened to, and it is troubling to hear that Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority are heading down this path.”

NOTES

The signatories to the statement are:

1. Big Brother Watch
2. Amnesty Scotland
3. Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights
4. Privacy International
5. Liberty
6. Human Rights Consortium Scotland
7. CEMVO Scotland
8. Equality Network
9. West of Scotland Regional Equality Council
10. Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
11. Refuweegee
12. Sikhs in Scotland
13. Amina – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre
14. Exhale

• The full text of the statement is as follows:

  “The signatories to this call are rights organisations, equality groups, and anti-racism organisations.

  We hold differing views about live facial recognition surveillance, ranging from serious concerns about its incompatibility with human rights, to its discriminatory impact, the lack of safeguards, the lack of evidence on its necessity or proportionality, the lack of a sufficient legal basis, the lack of parliamentary consideration, and the lack of a democratic mandate.

  However, all of these views lead us to the same conclusion:

  We call on Police Scotland to immediately abandon any plans to introduce live facial recognition for public surveillance.”

• Spokespeople are available for interview – please contact 07730439257 or info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

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Source: https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-coverage/scotlands-decision-facial-recognition/