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The Home Secretary has defended the Government’s expansion of live facial recognition technology as a “targeted” crackdown on high-harm offenders, amid concerns over privacy.
Yvette Cooper denied the technology was being used to catch lower-level crimes such as ticket-touting, as it has been previously in Wales, and said “safeguards and protections” will govern its deployment.
Critics including Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti have attacked new plans to roll out 10 vans equipped with facial recognition technology across seven police forces in England as part of a Government overhaul of neighbourhood policing.
The former shadow attorney general said the expansion was a step towards a “total surveillance society” in the UK.
Asked whether the rollout would infringe on people’s privacy, Ms Cooper said: “Well, the way this technology is being used is to identify people who are wanted by the court, who maybe should be returned to prison, or who have failed to appear before the court, or who have breached things like sexual harm prevention orders, so serious criminals.
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“And I think being able to identify them, alongside having proper legal safeguards and a legal framework in place because there do have to be safeguards and protections, but we also need to be able to use the technology to catch dangerous criminals and to keep communities safe.”
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In 2017, South Wales Police said facial recognition was being used to track suspects including ticket touts as the force prepared for the Champions League final in Cardiff.
Pressed on whether she was happy for the technology to be deployed in this way, she said: “No, that’s not how they’ve (police in South Wales) used it.
“They used it for targeting where there’s serious organised crime, where there are criminal gangs, but in every case that they do use it, they need to obviously have safeguards in place and we need to make sure that we’ve got a new legal framework for it to be operating under, and also that it can be used to tackle serious crimes and keep communities safe.”
Ministers have said a new legal framework will be drawn up to support use of the technology following a consultation launching this autumn.
Checks would only be done against police watchlists of wanted criminals, suspects and those subject to bail or court order conditions such as sex offenders, the Home Office said.
The vans would be deployed across seven forces – Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire – in the coming weeks.
They would be manned by trained officers operating within College of Policing guidance.
But Lady Chakrabarti said the technology was “incredibly intrusive” and had been “developed pretty much completely outside the law”.
“Some would say this is yet another move towards a total surveillance society – challenges to privacy, challenges to freedom of assembly and association, and problems with race and sex discrimination because of the higher likelihood of false matches in the context of certain groups,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It’s particularly odd that this has all been developed pretty much completely outside the law.”
She welcomed plans to consult ahead of possible new legislation, but warned that to date, “it’s been a bit of a Wild West”.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson dismissed the claims, telling BBC Breakfast: “With the greatest of respect, that’s not what this is about.
“This is about giving the tools to our police officers to enable them to keep us safe.”
Forces already deploying live facial recognition had used it to arrest rape, domestic abuse, knife crime and robbery suspects as well as sex offenders breaching their conditions.
The UK’s data protection watchdog warned the technology does not operate in a “legal vacuum”, and police must use it with “in a way that respects people’s rights and freedoms”.
A spokesperson for the Information Commissioner’s Office said: “(Facial recognition technology) is covered by data protection law, which requires any use of personal data, including biometric data, to be lawful, fair and proportionate.
“When used by the police, FRT must be deployed in a way that respects people’s rights and freedoms, with appropriate safeguards in place.
“FRT is a priority for the ICO due to its potential benefits and risks.”
Meanwhile, the Home Office said every community across England and Wales had now been assigned a “named, contactable” officer to handle reports of crimes such as anti-social behaviour.
Their details would be made available for residents on their local force’s website, it is understood.
The pledge was made as part of the Government’s previously announced Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, under which forces have signed up to a commitment to respond to neighbourhood queries within 72 hours.
The Government said the move would help ensure “the public will have consistent direct links to their local force, with dedicated anti-social behaviour leads and new visible patrols in town centres”.