Latest news with #PoliceSurveillance
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Met Police's use of live facial recognition is 'unlawful', equality watchdog warns
The use of live facial recognition by Britain's biggest police force is 'unlawful' and not compatible with human rights laws, the equalities watchdog has said. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has claimed Scotland Yard's rules and safeguards fall short of standards and could have a 'chilling effect' on individuals' rights when deployed at protests. Live facial recognition (LFR) is set to be deployed by the force at Notting Hill Carnival over the August bank holiday weekend. More than one million people are expected to converge on the streets of west London for the annual celebration. And Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has already sought to reassure campaign groups that the technology will be used without bias. And a spokesman from the force said it believes its use of the tool is 'both lawful and proportionate, playing a key role in keeping Londoners safe.' The EHRC has been given permission to intervene in an upcoming judicial review over LFR, brought by privacy campaigner Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo and anti-knife crime community worker Shaun Thompson. They are seeking the legal challenge claiming Mr Thompson was 'grossly mistreated' after LFR wrongly identified him as a criminal last year. EHRC chief executive John Kirkpatrick said the technology, when used responsibly, can help combat serious crime and keep people safe, but the biometric data being processed is 'deeply personal'. 'The law is clear: everyone has the right to privacy, to freedom of expression and to freedom of assembly. These rights are vital for any democratic society,' he said. 'As such, there must be clear rules which guarantee that live facial recognition technology is used only where necessary, proportionate and constrained by appropriate safeguards. 'We believe that the Metropolitan Police's current policy falls short of this standard. The Met, and other forces using this technology, need to ensure they deploy it in ways which are consistent with the law and with human rights.' The watchdog said it believes the Met's policy is 'unlawful' because it is 'incompatible' with Articles 8, right to privacy, 10, freedom of expression, and 11, freedom of assembly and association of the European Convention on Human Rights. Big Brother Watch interim director Rebecca Vincent said the involvement of EHRC in the judicial review was hugely welcome in the 'landmark legal challenge'. 'The rapid proliferation of invasive live facial recognition technology without any legislation governing its use is one of the most pressing human rights concerns in the UK today,' she said. 'Live facial recognition surveillance turns our faces into barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects who, as we've seen in Shaun's case, can be falsely accused, grossly mistreated and forced to prove our innocence to authorities.' 'Given this crucial ongoing legal action, the Home Office and police's investment in this dangerous and discriminatory technology is wholly inappropriate and must stop.' It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended plans to expand LFR across the country to catch 'high-harm' offenders last week. Last month, the Metropolitan Police announced plans to expand its use of the technology across the capital. Police bosses said LFR will now be used up to ten times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days. A Met spokesman said the force welcomes the EHRC's recognition of the technology's potential in policing, and that the Court of Appeal has confirmed police can use LFR under common law powers. 'As part of this model, we have strong safeguards in place, with biometric data automatically deleted unless there is a match," they said. 'Independent research from the National Physical Laboratory has also helped us configure the technology in a way that avoids discrimination.'
The Independent
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Metropolitan Police's policy over live facial recognition ‘unlawful'
The Metropolitan Police's policy over live facial recognition (LFR) technology is 'unlawful' because it is 'incompatible' with human rights laws, the equalities watchdog has said. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said the UK's biggest police force's rules and safeguards over using the tool 'fall short' and could have a 'chilling effect' on individuals' rights when used at protests. The concerns come as the Met is set to deploy LFR, which captures people's faces in real-time CCTV cameras, at this year's Notting Hill Carnival over the August bank holiday weekend. Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has already sought to reassure campaign groups that the technology will be used without bias. The EHRC has been given permission to intervene in an upcoming judicial review over LFR, brought by privacy campaigner Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo and anti-knife crime community worker Shaun Thompson. They are seeking the legal challenge claiming Mr Thompson was 'grossly mistreated' after LFR wrongly identified him as a criminal last year. EHRC chief executive John Kirkpatrick said the technology, when used responsibly, can help combat serious crime and keep people safe, but the biometric data being processed is 'deeply personal'. 'The law is clear: everyone has the right to privacy, to freedom of expression and to freedom of assembly. These rights are vital for any democratic society,' he said. 'As such, there must be clear rules which guarantee that live facial recognition technology is used only where necessary, proportionate and constrained by appropriate safeguards. 'We believe that the Metropolitan Police's current policy falls short of this standard. The Met, and other forces using this technology, need to ensure they deploy it in ways which are consistent with the law and with human rights.' The watchdog said it believes the Met's policy is 'unlawful' because it is 'incompatible' with Articles 8, right to privacy, 10, freedom of expression, and 11, freedom of assembly and association of the European Convention on Human Rights. Big Brother Watch interim director Rebecca Vincent said the involvement of EHRC in the judicial review was hugely welcome in the 'landmark legal challenge'. 'The rapid proliferation of invasive live facial recognition technology without any legislation governing its use is one of the most pressing human rights concerns in the UK today,' she said. 'Live facial recognition surveillance turns our faces into barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects who, as we've seen in Shaun's case, can be falsely accused, grossly mistreated and forced to prove our innocence to authorities.' 'Given this crucial ongoing legal action, the Home Office and police's investment in this dangerous and discriminatory technology is wholly inappropriate and must stop.' It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended plans to expand LFR across the country to catch 'high-harm' offenders last week. Last month, the Metropolitan Police announced plans to expand its use of the technology across the capital. Police bosses said LFR will now be used up to 10 times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days. The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
"I've had enough... I'm refusing to back down": Rep. Nicole Collier confined inside TX State Capitol
'I've had enough, just like the American people have had enough of the Trump takeover.' Texas state Democratic Rep. Nicole Collier spoke to MSNBC from the Texas State Capitol on Monday. Collier made the decision to confine herself inside after the Texas GOP required police surveillance as a condition for her release. She is refusing to sign a waiver for the law enforcement escort. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Met chief rejects calls to scrap live facial recognition at Notting Hill carnival
The Metropolitan police commissioner has hit back at demands to drop the use of live facial recognition cameras at this weekend's Notting Hill carnival over concerns of racial bias and an impending legal challenge. Mark Rowley wrote in a letter that the instant face-matching technology would be used at Europe's biggest street carnival 'in a non-discriminatory way' using an algorithm that 'does not perform in a way which exhibits bias'. He was responding to a letter from 11 anti-racist and civil liberty organisations, disclosed in the Guardian, that urged the Met to scrap the use of the technology at an event that celebrates the African-Caribbean community. The Runnymede Trust, Liberty, Big Brother Watch, Race on the Agenda, and Human Rights Watch were among those who claimed in the letter to Rowley on Saturday that the technology 'will only exacerbate concerns about abuses of state power and racial discrimination within your force'. Campaigners claim the police have been allowed to 'self-regulate' their use of the technology because of the lack of a legal framework and deploy the technology's algorithm at lower settings that are biased against ethnic minorities and women. The Met said last month it would deploy specially mounted cameras at entries and exits of the two-day event in west London. As many as 2 million people attend the second-biggest street festival in the world every year, held on the August bank holiday weekend. In his letter sent to the NGOs and charities, Rowley acknowledged that previous use of the technology at the carnival in 2016 and 2017 did not build public confidence. The Met's former facial recognition system, which has since been improved, incorrectly identified 102 people as potential suspects and led to no arrests. 'Since then, we've made considerable progress. The current version of the algorithm is significantly improved, has undergone independent testing and validation, and now performs to a much higher standard,' Rowley said. He said the technology would target the 'small minority' who commit serious crimes including violence and sexual offences. In 2024 there were 349 arrests made at the event, including for homicide, rape, possession of weapons, and other violence-related and sexual offences, Rowley said. 'Together, these offences represent a threat to public safety and all those who seek to enjoy carnival safely. Our use of LFR is part of a much broader strategy to locate, disrupt, and deter the minority who pose such risks.' Civil liberty groups have called on the Met to drop the use of LFR cameras after a high court challenge was launched last month by the anti-knife campaigner Shaun Thompson. Thompson, a Black British man, was wrongly identified by LFR as a criminal, held by police, and then faced demands from officers for his fingerprints. Rowley's letter did not address Thompson's challenge but dismissed claims that the police were operating without a legal framework. 'The Equality Act 2010 places a legal obligation on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination,' he wrote, adding that the European convention on human rights, and data protection laws, also covered LFR technology. Responding to Rowley's letter, Rebecca Vincent, the interim director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: 'With no legislation governing live facial recognition, no governmental framework as promised by the home secretary, and a crucial judicial review pending, why the rush to accelerate use of this Orwellian technology? We're meant to operate on the basis of 'policing by consent', yet no one has consented to this, and certainly not the attendees of this cultural celebration. 'We all want criminals off the streets, but turning carnival into a mass police lineup is not the way to do it.'
