The use of live facial recognition (LFR) cameras by the Metropolitan Police in south London, UK, resulted in the arrest of 17 individuals last week during operations in Croydon and Tooting. The arrests spanned a wide range of offenses including theft, assault, burglary, fraud, and sexually-based offenses, among others. The technology is designed to identify individuals with outstanding arrest warrants, something the Metropolitan Police refers to as “precision policing”. One of the individuals arrested, a 23-year-old man, was found to be in possession of blank ammunition, leading to the seizure of further ammunition, stolen mobile phones, and cannabis associated with him.
However, the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement bodies has proven to be controversial, with members of both the House of Lords and Commons last year voicing their demand for a reassessment of these technologies. Critics argue that the accuracy of such technology is highly contested, with the legality of its use remaining uncertain.
Civil rights advocacy group, Big Brother Watch, has also pointed out that 89% of UK police facial recognition alerts fail. The Metropolitan Police has refuted these privacy concerns, asserting that if no match is recorded, the data is immediately and automatically deleted.
The Metropolitan Police began testing facial recognition technology back in 2018, in a project that included the deployment of vans equipped with cameras in public places. The force uses AI technologies like Live Facial Recognition (LFR) and Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR) in specific operations, but has been reluctant to clarify the specifics of their AI use, citing national security and law enforcement protection as reasons for their reticence.
However, the use of predictive AI technologies by law enforcement agencies has not been without incident. There have been disturbing instances where predictive policing based on inaccurate facial recognition technology results led to wrongful arrest of individuals, causing increased mistrust in already strained police-public relationships.
While there is no denying the potential benefits of AI technology in law enforcement, these events highlight the importance of maintaining a careful balance to ensure that these tools are reliable, accurate, and just.
