Facial recognition for policing – what do we expect?

Last summer when I stood down as the UK’s first combined Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner the government was about to scrap what little legislation there was covering this important area for policing. In any event the general election meant the bill was scrapped and, as it turns out, the government itself, so we are back to square one. And square one is not sustainable.

Facial recognition has already made it onto the Prime Minister’s agenda and the regulatory framework enabling its accountable use by the police remains incomplete, inconsistent and incoherent.

The police in England and Wales have a successful history of adopting innovative technology (think TASERs, breathalysers, DNA profiling, bodyworn video) and deploying it accountably in the interests of a more effective operational response to emerging threats. Under current law the government must produce a Surveillance Camera Code of Practice setting out how all public space surveillance systems operated by the police and local authorities must be used. It expressly addresses the use of live facial recognition but there is one central point to which I would draw the new government’s attention: the overarching purpose. The Code is aimed at enabling the use of technology in a way that the public expect and to a standard that maintains their trust and confidence. The Code is a good start but does not go far enough and the conditions needed to empower the police to use the many technological advances in this critical area are unfinished business.