The Met Police released a report on the force’s use of live facial recognition technology. Responding to the report, Big Brother Watch’s legal and policy officer Jasleen Chaggar said that it was “disturbing that 80% of the innocent people wrongly flagged by facial recognition were black”.
“It is alarming that over three million people have been scanned with police facial recognition cameras in the past year in London alone.
“Live facial recognition is a mass surveillance tool that risks making London feel like an open prison, and the prospect of the Met expanding facial recognition even more across the city is disproportionate and chilling.
“The Met’s report shows that the majority of people flagged by facial recognition were not wanted for arrest.
“We all want police to have the tools they need to cut crime but this is an Orwellian and authoritarian technology that treats millions of innocent people like suspects and risks serious injustice,” she said.
“No law in this country has ever been passed to govern live facial recognition and given the breath-taking risk to the public’s privacy, it is long overdue that the government stops its use to account for its serious risks.”