BBC – Government announced unprecedented facial recognition expansion

Big Brother Watch Team / August 13, 2025

UK police forces will get access to ten new live facial recognition vans, the government has announced. The seven police forces with access to this equipment are Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch have said this is a “significant expansion of the surveillance state.” Big Brother Watch is currently supporting an anti-knife crime community worker in a landmark legal challenge against the Metropolitan Police’s use of this technology after he was wrongly stopped and detained.

The group’s interim director Rebecca Vincent said: “The Home Office must scrap its plans to roll out further live facial recognition capacity until robust legislative safeguards are established.”

BBC – Government expands police use of facial recognition vans

Daily Mail – Live facial recognition is ‘worrying for our democracy’, experts warn as the government expands the ‘Orwellian’ system across Britain

ITV News – Live facial recognition to be expanded across the UK with more police forces using the technology

ITN – Big Brother Watch share concerns over facial recognition

Independent – Police camera van rollout slammed as move toward ‘total surveillance society’

Morning Star – Expansion of live facial recognition is ‘worrying for our democracy,’ campaigners warn

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