Police use of facial recognition ‘unjustifiable’, says Scottish Justice Committee

There is no “justifiable basis” for Police Scotland to invest in and use live facial recognition (LFR) technology, a Scottish parliamentary committee has ruled, citing human rights and data protection concerns.

The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing said in a report published today (11 February) that Police Scotland would need to demonstrate the legal basis of its use of LFR, as well as eliminate the biases that discriminate against ethnic minorities and women, for use of the technology to be approved.

LFR technology acts as a biometric checkpoint, enabling police to identify people in real time by scanning faces and matching them against a set of selected custody images, known as “watch lists”. “The sub-committee believes that there would be no justifiable basis for Police Scotland to invest in technology which is known to have in-built racial and gender bias, and unacceptably high levels of inaccuracy,” said the report.