Hammersmith and Fulham council has approved plans to introduce facial recognition and AI-assisted cameras into its local network, which consists of over 2,000 cameras. The West London borough already has more cameras per person that anywhere else in the UK.
Jasleen Chaggar, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch, said: “The council are really throwing the kitchen sink at their residents with these plans, with very little regard to their fundamental rights or freedoms. Not only do they want to subject their residents to 24-hour real-time identity checks through live facial recognition, they also want to capture that footage of them going about their everyday lives in order to review their movements and behaviours after the fact.”
“There is no framework that’s been promised, there’s no legislation, and there’s an ongoing legal challenge. Will the council use this to monitor fly tippers or enforce parking fines? There are no rules in place… and the council are using this without safeguards.”