Police face legal challenge over the use of ‘Orwellian’ facial recognition technology

THE use of “Orwellian” facial recognition cameras by the British police is to be challenged in the courts for breaching human rights.

Facial recognition technology works by scanning images recorded by a surveillance camera and matching them to a database of criminals in real time.

It is being piloted by police forces in London, Humberside, South Wales and Leicestershire.

Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch claims the technology is inaccurate and breaches the rights of individuals under the Human Rights Act.

The Metropolitan Police, however, insists that it increases the safety of citizens.

The Met recently targeted Westfield shopping centre with the surveillance cameras following previous controversial deployments at the Notting Hill Carnival and Remembrance Sunday last year. No arrests were made at Westfield, but officers were spotted rushing to stop and search a young black man following the software mistakenly identified him for someone else, Big Brother Watch claims.

The charity is working alongside Baroness Jenny Jones, who said she had been targeted by the police’s facial recognition technology, to bring a legal challenge against the Home Secretary Sajid Javid and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.

Baroness Jones, a member of the House of Lords, claims that a photo of her was held on the Met’s “domestic extremism” database and her political activities were monitored when she sat on an official committee scrutinising the Met.

Baroness Jones said the police left her “no choice” but to bring this legal challenge.

“This new form of surveillance lacks a legal basis, tramples over civil liberties, and it hasn’t been properly debated in parliament.

“The idea that citizens should all become walking ID cards is really the antithesis to democratic freedom.

“Facial recognition surveillance is likely to impact on my political work, whether I’m trying to meet whistleblowers in the city or attending protests and meeting campaigners where it is being used.”

The group received more than £5,000 in crowdfunding to raise money for the legal challenge earlier this month.