Goto

Collaborating Authors

 government expand police use


Government expands police use of facial recognition vans

BBC News

Big Brother Watch is bringing a legal challenge against the Met Police's use of the technology, alongside Shaun Thompson, who was wrongly identified by an LFR camera. Rebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Police have interpreted the absence of any legislative basis authorising the use of this intrusive technology as carte blanche to continue to roll it out unfettered, despite the fact that a crucial judicial review on the matter is pending. "The Home Office must scrap its plans to roll out further live facial recognition capacity until robust legislative safeguards are established." Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: "It's welcome news that the government will finally develop a statutory framework on the use of facial recognition, but this should be in place before more facial recognition technology is rolled out. "There's no reasonable excuse to be putting even more cameras on our streets before the public have had their say and legislation is brought in to protect all of us." The government says officers using the LFR vans will need to follow the College of Policing's guidance on the technology and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.