Responding to news that Cheshire Police has adopted on-the-spot mobile facial recognition (“Operator Initiated Facial Recognition”) and retrospective facial recognition technologies, Big Brother Watch’s Legal and Policy Officer Madeleine Stone said:
Police forces are rolling out new forms of facial recognition at an alarming rate, despite a lack of strict safeguards or parliamentary authorisation.
This extreme technology turns the public into walking ID cards and could turn encounters with the police, whether on the roads, during stop and search or at demonstrations into Orwellian police lineups resulting in yet more intrusive information gathering on the public.
Police use of intrusive facial recognition must be urgently stopped and subjected to democratic parliamentary scrutiny.
Spokespeople are available for interview – contact info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or 07730439257