Responding to news that the Metropolitan Police will expand the use of fixed live facial recognition cameras in London, Head of Advocacy for Big Brother Watch Jack Coulson said:
“Tackling crime hotspots is in everyone’s interests, but the Metropolitan police’s rosy picture of this approach masks a dangerous reality.”
“Expanding the use of live facial recognition to static cameras is an alarming escalation of an intrusive technology which has already scanned the faces of millions of innocent Londoners.”
“Forcing people to enter a digital police line-up in the capital’s busiest and most popular destinations is an affront to the idea that you should not have to identify yourself to the police if you have done nothing wrong. To see a play, you must now pay with your privacy.”
“Facial recognition surveillance makes mistakes. Just this February, Alvi Choudhury was arrested, held for ten hours, and only released at 2 am for a crime committed in a city he’d never visited. It is predictable, given the technology’s racial bias, that Mr Choudhury was confused for another Asian man.”
“Legislation to regulate the police’s use of facial recognition is expected in the Autumn. Yet the police are rushing ahead with AI monitoring of the public under their own rules.
“We are calling on the Met to stop this experiment until, at least, Parliament has spoken. Policing by consent is a cultural inheritance we must protect. Permanent biometric surveillance of the public square is incompatible with that ideal.”
ENDS
- Spokespeople are available for interview – please contact 07730439257 or info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk
- Click here to find out more about Big Brother Watch’s campaign to stop facial recognition