Scots police looking into ‘Big Brother’ face scan cameras
POLICE chiefs in Scotland are considering plans for the launch of ‘Orwellian’ facial recognition cameras to scan tens of thousands of people’s faces in public.
The Metropolitan Police has trialled the ‘dystopian’ technology to monitor more than 36,000 unsuspecting members of the public in central London.
While supporters claim the cameras can be an effective crime-fighting tool, critics fear they are an example of ‘Big Brother’ technology used in China and Russia, without scrutiny or sufficient regulation.
The Live Facial Recognition (LFR) cameras work by scanning people’s faces as they walk in public and turning the images into ‘biometric patterns’ or ‘facial fingerprints’.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘Many people will understandably be concerned that the introduction of this new technology could potentially infringe on their civil liberties.
‘Robust engagement and due diligence must be the top priority before these cameras are potentially rolled out.’
In the recent Met trial, which took place over a weekend, cameras were positioned in Oxford Circus, and scanned a total of 36,420 faces for matches against a police watchlist of 6,747 people.
Just one person was singled out by the technology, who turned out to be innocent. In another case, a French student was held for around 20 minutes after being wrongly identified by the system.
Assistant Chief Constable Bex Smith of Police Scotland told the Mail: ‘Police Scotland is not using, trialling or testing live facial recognition technology presently.
‘But we are keeping a watching brief on the trialling of technology elsewhere.
‘As technology advances... we can see that embracing new ways of working and harnessing technology needs to be considered.
‘We are committed to our duty to keep people safe, and this may necessitate us moving with the times and looking to technology to help us to do so in the future. We recognise the valid concerns about the use of new technology and are developing a governance framework to balance requirements to comply with data protection and privacy regulations.’
The Met announced in 2020 that it was rolling out the operational use of LFR technology.
But members of the public have to rely on Twitter to find out where the force will be deploying the cameras.
Ahead of their recent deployment in London, the force gave just five minutes’ notice before the cameras were switched on.
Signs were also erected around the watched area informing passers-by of the filming.
Madeleine Stone, of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said it was ‘deeply alarming’ that Police Scotland were exploring the use of the ‘Orwellian’ and ‘dystopian’ technology.
She added: ‘This intrusive surveillance poses a serious threat to our civil liberties, violates our right to privacy and routinely results in misidentifications and legal issues.’
A Met spokesman said the technology can ‘prevent and detect crime, find wanted criminals, safeguard vulnerable people and... protect people from harm’.
‘Serious threat to our civil liberties’