Facial recognition roll out eyed after new tracking vans in Leeds City Centre
Ministers are looking to ramp up police use of facial recognition to fight crime following a roll-out in Leeds last month.
A 10 week consultation is being launched to ask for views on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people’s privacy, to form new laws.
The Government is also proposing to create a regulator to oversee police use of facial recognition, biometrics and other tools and is collecting opinions on what powers it should have.
West Yorkshire Police launched vans in Leeds City Centre last month using Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology to help identify individuals who are wanted by the courts, subject to arrest, or pose a risk to the public.
At the time, Chief Inspector Daniel Tillett, who led the rollout of the technology, said: “Our aim is to use this as a tool to help locate dangerous individuals, safeguard the public, and support victims of crime — not to monitor ordinary people going about their daily lives.
Policing minister Sarah Jones described facial recognition as the “biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching” saying that it has already helped catch thousands of criminals.
“We will expand its use so that forces can put more criminals behind bars and tackle crime in their communities,” she said.
The consultation launched on Thursday will consider views on what safeguards are needed to ensure people’s confidence, and whether using the technology is proportionate to the level of harm being tackled.
It will be used to form the basis of new laws to govern the technology.
National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for facial recognition, Lindsey Chiswick, said live facial recognition is already subject to strong safeguards but that “public trust is vital”, adding: “We want to build on that by listening to people’s views.”
Former head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Neil Basu, also said live facial recognition is a “massive step forward for law enforcement”.
He added: “The live facial recognition system was, but no longer is, discriminatory, but it will still require proper legal safeguards and oversight by the surveillance commissioner.
“This consultation is a necessary and welcome step by the Government which I hope will expedite its use by policing, lead them to catch more criminals, and keep us much safer.”
Currently police use three types of facial recognition, retrospective, used in criminal investigations to search images from crime scenes against images of people taken on arrest; live, using live video footage of people passing cameras and comparing their images with a list of wanted people; and operator-initiated, a mobile app that allows officers to check someone’s identity without arresting them.
Susannah Drury, director of policy and development at charity Missing People, welcomed the consultation.
She said: “Facial recognition technology could help to ensure more missing people are found, protecting people from serious harm.
“However, we need to better understand the ethical implications and what safeguards must be put in place for this technology to be used safely.”