POLICE Scotland have been urged to “immediately abandon” plans to introduce facial recognition software for public surveillance by Amnesty International and 13 other advocacy groups.
It emerged last week during a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) that the force had decided to move ahead with the policy.
Deputy chief constable Jane Connors told the SPA board that Police Scotland will “move ahead” with the “work around live facial recognition”.
The decision has been condemned by anti-racism, equality, and human rights groups who say it is an “alarming step towards a Scottish surveillance state”.
In a joint statement, 14 organisations urged Police Scotland to scrap the plans due to concerns over its legality in regards to human rights, concerns about the “discriminatory impact” and lack of parliamentary consideration and democratic mandate, among others.
“Live facial recognition has faced criticism from rights and equalities groups across the globe due to its impact on privacy, freedom of expression and its well-documented racial and gender biases,” the statement reads.
“International research, as well as testing of the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police’s facial recognition algorithm, has identified disproportionately higher inaccuracy rates when attempting to identify people of colour and women.”
It adds that the use of the technology in England and Wales has been subject to legal challenges. The Court of Appeal ruled in 2019 that South Wales Police use of facial recognition technology was unlawful and violated human rights, while the Metropolitan Police are facing legal action after an anti-knife crime activist, Shaun Thompson, was wrongly flagged as a criminal by the London force’s technology.
And, in 2020, Holyrood’s sub-committee on policing held an inquiry into the use of the technology north of the border, finding that there was “no justifiable basis” for the use of facial recognition software.
“Police use of live facial recognition is not enabled by any specific piece of legislation and has not been authorised by parliament,” the joint statement reads.
“Police forces have been left to write their own policies about how and where it can be used.”
Liz Thomson, Scotland programme director at Amnesty International, said that Police Scotland’s claim to be a “rights-based force” is at odds with plans to introduce a “tool of mass surveillance”.
“Around the world, facial recognition technologies are being used to stifle protest and harass minority communities,” she said.
“These systems violate the right to privacy, threaten the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to equality and non-discrimination.
“In recent months, the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland hosted the Metropolitan Police in Edinburgh to reassure Scottish civil society that LFR [Live Facial Recognition] could be used without detrimental human rights impact.
"Yet just last week the Equality and Human Rights Commission publicly warned that the Met’s policy on LFR use is unlawful.
“It’s time Police Scotland started listening. If the force continues with its own plans for LFR it will be dragging Scotland backwards on human rights.”
Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at Big Brother Watch, said it was “deeply disappointing” that Police Scotland are pursuing using the technology.
“Live facial recognition technology has no place in a democratic society and poses a grave risk to the rights and freedoms of the Scottish public,” she added.
"There is no specific legislation governing police use of this technology, meaning that police forces across the UK are already deploying this technology absent of meaningful accountability or oversight.
“Police Scotland should instead take this opportunity to lead by example and pursue a rights-respecting approach to policing, rather than repeating the mistakes of English and Welsh forces who have invested taxpayers’ money [on] this Orwellian technology.”
Police Scotland have been contacted for comment.
In April, Police Scotland, along with the SPA and the Scottish Biometric Commissioner, said they were seeking opinions from the public on the use of live facial recognition.
The force launched a survey seeking the views of people on the use of the technology, and stated that it was not a consultation, but rather an ongoing “public conversation”.
We previously told how SNP members described the use of the technology as “not justifiable”.
A motion, which is set to be voted on by party delegates at the upcoming national conference in Aberdeen in October, has called on Police Scotland not to invest in the technology and that it should not be allowed in Scotland without primary legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament.
Who are the groups urging Police Scotland to abandon facial recognition technology?
The signatories to the joint statement are: 1. Big Brother Watch 2. Amnesty International 3. Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights 4. Privacy International 5. Liberty 6. Human Rights Consortium Scotland 7. CEMVO Scotland 8. Equality Network 9. West of Scotland Regional Equality Council 10. Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland 11. Refuweegee 12. Sikhs in Scotland 13. Amina - The Muslim Women's Resource Centre 14. Exhale
