Responding to today’s judgment on the Met police’s use of live facial recognition in R (Thompson and Carlo) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis:
Claimant and director of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, said:
“This is a disappointing judgment but the fight against live facial recognition mass surveillance is far from over.
“There has never been a more important time to stand up for the public’s rights against dystopian surveillance tech that turns us into walking ID cards and treats us like a nation of suspects.
“Innocent people deserve clear and strict protections from live facial recognition cameras, which should be reserved for the most serious cases rather than used to scan millions of people, and that is what the appeal will seek to achieve.
“This legal challenge, which was made possible by concerned members of the public, has already led to a change in the Met’s facial recognition policy and to a payment awarded to Mr Thompson who was misidentified by the tech and threatened with arrest.
“He has been courageous in challenging the police, defending his rights and now standing up for the rights of millions of others in the country.”
Claimant Shaun Thompson said:
“I’ve considered the court’s judgment today and decided to appeal it to protect Londoners from facial recognition being used for mass surveillance and leading to situations like mine, where I was misidentified, detained and threatened with arrest.
“No one should be treated like a criminal due to a computer error.
“I was compliant with the police but my bank cards and passport weren’t enough to convince the police the facial recognition tech was wrong. It’s like stop and search on steroids. It’s clear the more widely this is used, the more innocent people like me risk being criminalised.
“My daily work getting knives off the streets with the Street Fathers proves we can keep London safe through community action, not by spying on the public with cameras that real criminals already know how to dodge.”
NOTES:
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The judgment is available here.
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A blog by Big Brother Watch responding to the judgment, and with more background on the case, is available here.
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The claimants are represented by Dan Squires KC, Aidan Wills and Rosalind Comyn of Matrix Chambers. Also acting for the claimants are Jules Carey, Joseph Morgan and Emilia Pearson from Bindmans LLP. Squires and Wills acted as counsel for Dr Ed Bridges against South Wales Police in the first test case concerning police use of live facial recognition technology. The Court of Appeal found that South Wales Police’s use of the surveillance breached privacy rights as there were insufficient constraints on where it could be used and who could be put on watchlists.
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Photos of Silkie Carlo, Shaun Thompson, and live facial recognition deployments are available here
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Big Brother Watch is crowdfunding to fund the appeal
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Spokespeople are available for interviews. Please send any further enquiries to info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or 07730439257
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More detail on Big Brother Watch’s campaign to #StopFacialRecognition is available on our website