A senior police officer in Wales has warned that police use of facial recognition is unwarranted and invasive. Arfon Jones, the North Wales police and crime commissioner, has publicly stated that facial recognition technology is a “step too far” and “disproportionate”. These comments have been made in light of surveillance of football fans in Cardiff, where Big Brother Watch led a protest against the police’s use of this technology.
Big Brother Watch is calling for facial recognition technology to be banned, stating that this “dangerous mass surveillance treats all fans as suspects, erodes public freedoms and wastes public money.”
BBC News – South Wales football derby: Facial ID technology sparks police row