Legal threat to police over face scan technology

A CARDIFF dad and former politician has threatened South Wales Police with legal action in an attempt to stop the force using facial recognition technology.

Ed Bridges, a former Lib Dem councillor in Cardiff, is calling on South Wales Police to scrap its use of automated facial recognition software.

He says it “violates privacy rights of everyone within range of the cameras, has a chilling effect on peaceful protest, discriminates against women and BAME people, and breaches data protection laws”.

Surveillance cameras scan the faces of people passing the cameras and create unique biometric maps of their faces. These maps are then compared with and matched with other facial images on police databases.

The force was one of the first in the UK to roll out the software when it launched in May 2017 and was first used at the Champions League final.

The force had to defend its use when it later emerged it wrongly identified more than 2,000 people as potential criminals as police patrolled the final.

The technology provided hundreds of “false positives”, wrongly marking out innocent people as possible troublemakers when an estimated 170,000 people descended on the city for the showpiece match between Real Madrid and Juventus.

The force blamed the high number of false positives at the Champions League final on the “poor quality of images” on the watch list supplied by Uefa, Interpol and other partner agencies, as well as the fact it was the first major use of the technology.

Mr Bridges has teamed up with human rights group Liberty and says if the force does not stop using the software he will launch legal action.

He has sent a letter to Chief Constable Matt Jukes demanding that police scrap its use of the technology in the next two weeks.

Mr Bridges said: “The police are supposed to protect us, and their presence should make us feel safe – but I know first hand how intimidating their use of facial recognition technology is.

“Indiscriminately scanning everyone going about their daily business makes our privacy rights meaningless. The inevitable conclusion is that people will change their behaviour or feel scared to protest or express themselves freely – in short, we’ll be less free.”

It’s understood South Wales Police have used the technology 20 times since its launch and Mr Bridges claims he’s been caught on camera at least twice.

He believes he was scanned as a passer-by in a busy shopping street in Cardiff in the days before Christmas, and again while protesting outside the Cardiff Arms Fair in March 2018.

Mr Bridges continued: “Members of the public scanned by AFR technology have not provided their consent and are often completely unaware it is in use. It is not authorised by any law and the Government has not provided any policies or guidance on it. No independent oversight body regulates its use.”

Corey Stoughton, Liberty’s advocacy director, said: “Police’s creeping roll-out of facial recognition into our streets and public spaces is a poisonous cocktail – it shows a disregard for democratic scrutiny, an indifference to discrimination and a rejection of the public’s fundamental rights to privacy and free expression.

“Scanning thousands of our faces and comparing them to shady databases with wildly inaccurate results has chilling implications for our freedom and puts everyone in a continuous police line-up that carries a huge risk of injustice.”

A spokesman for South Wales Police said: “South Wales Police has received correspondence relating to the deployment of automated facial recognition technology which we will be responding to in due course.

“The force has been very cognisant of concerns surrounding privacy and are confident that our approach is lawful and proportionate.”

It has been used at major events, including the Elvis Festival in Porthcawl, Anthony Joshua’s fight with Carlos Takam and when Prince Harry and Megan Markle visited Cardiff.

It was also recently used at Radio One’s Biggest Weekend in Swansea, and Scott Lloyd, project lead for the programme, wrote on social media that a man was identified and arrested for an outstanding warrant within 10 minutes of its deployment.

Mr Bridges is now £3,000 to cover the costs legal challenge. crowdfunding of a potential