British police fail to use facial recognition ethically and legally

The study undermines the use of facial recognition by British authorities. This would be illegal and unethical.

According to a study by the University of Cambridge, the use of real-time facial recognition (LFR) by UK police “does not meet minimum ethical and legal standards”. After reviewing LFR by the Metropolitan Police (MET) and South Wales Police, the researchers concluded that the technology should be banned for use “in all public places”.

Study casts doubt on UK authorities’ use of facial recognition system

LFR matches faces captured by security cameras with photos in databases. China and other non-democratic regimes have used this technology as part of their government surveillance.

British police are testing its use in various crime and terrorism scenarios. On two occasions, the LFR was used by the MET and the South Wales Police to scan the crowd and compare faces to those on the criminal list. In another instance, officers used FRT’s mobile apps to scan the crowd and identify “wanted persons in real time,”according to the newspaper.

In these cases, the team found that the police were “overlooked”as they used the data and demographic information. This makes it difficult to determine whether the tools promote racial profiling and whether they raise questions of liability. “Police forces are not necessarily responsible for the harm caused by facial recognition technologies,” said Evany Radia-Dixit, lead author.

This would be illegal and unethical.

The Met reports that the latest algorithms have improved the accuracy of LFR with a false positive rate of less than 0.08%, according to The Guardian. They advertised a 70% success rate in 2020, but a University of Essex expert hired by the police found that the figure was actually only 19%. “The fact that in 2020 the Court of Appeal expressly found that the use of this technology by the South Wales Police Force was ‘illegal’ makes it difficult to defend the use of this same technology.”

However, the Met says its work is supported by law. “LFR is governed by a large number of sources of law. These sources of law collectively provide a layered legal framework for the use, regulation and oversight of LFR by various law enforcement agencies,” she told The Guardian. The UK Parliament has yet to enter into debate, although it has passed an Internet privacy law.