18 MILLION MUGSHOTS
‘Big Brother’ tsar demands police wipe innocent people’s photos from database of...
POLICE are facing a crackdown on their use of ‘Big Brother’ technology that allows them to instantly search through photos of 18million people when hunting criminals.
Forces have quietly built up the huge database of mugshots, including faces of people never convicted of a crime, and continued adding to it despite warnings from judges.
But now privacy watchdogs have voiced new fears over the surveillance tool, given that facial recognition software can now match faces on the database with images captured from CCTV, body cameras worn by officers, or even pictures on social media.
High-definition cameras and computer technology have developed so far that suspects on the database can be identified in seconds, as seen in the James Bond or Jason Bourne films.
A controversial pilot project at last summer’s Download music festival even saw heavy metal fans’ faces scanned by cameras and checked against a watchlist of offenders.
But now Ministers are being urged to recommend new laws to require that photos of innocent members of the public are deleted from the Police National Database, just as police were forced to get rid of the DNA records of millions of people on human rights grounds.
The Home Office, which will publish a review on the use of custody mugshots before Christmas, has received warnings from a number of watchdogs that police should restrict the automated face searches in order to protect people’s privacy.
The Biometrics Commissioner, Alastair MacGregor QC, says the facial recognition system is far more intrusive than records of fingerprints or DNA because it allows the state to track people’s movements.
A spokesman for Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter, who regulates the use of public CCTV, said: ‘If the pressing need of automatic facial recognition is to identify known criminals, then having a database which contains innocent people may be at odds with this.’
The Information Commissioner’s Office has also voiced concerns, saying: ‘Advances in facial recognition technology mean that pictures could become an i ncreasingl y powerful identification tool, much like other traditional biometric information, such as fingerprints and DNA profiles.
‘It is important that there is appropriate governance around the use of these images, particularly when the pictures are of people who are of no ongoing concern to the police.’
The National DNA Database Ethics Group met the Home Office review team and warned: ‘Facial images are now being loaded on to searchable databases, with no clear indication of how they will be used. The principles of privacy included not being subject to surveillance without good cause.’
Liberal Democrat peer Lord Scriven, who has tabled a series of Parliamentary questions on the use of the mugshots, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I think everybody should be distressed by what’s going on.
‘The Home Office must either stop the use of these images or bring strong guidelines to bring the police into account by Parliament. Innocent people’s photos should not be uploaded to a police database.’
A Home Office spokesman said last night: ‘This is a complex issue which needs careful consideration of the balance between public protection and civil liberties.’