Finding the Balance: An examination of police use of facial recognition technology and its relationship with citizens' human and data protection rights

Interest in the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) within England and Wales policing has increased as the technology becomes more easily available. Within the 43 police forces in England and Wales, 4 currently use FRT, 3 have, but stopped and the remaining 36 do not, or have not used FRT. FRT uses real-time biometric processing technology that allows police forces to identify people by comparing facial images to a “watchlist”. There are three main types used throughout England and Wales, Live Facial Recognition (LRF), Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR), and Operator Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR). At present, there is no legislation to assist police forces or FRT software developers in producing or using FRT in policing, and where guidance is offered on the matter it exclusively caters guidance for police forces.

Police use of facial recognition is heavily criticised by academics and civil liberty groups, as potentially breaching our human rights, in particular the right to private life, and a breach of our data protection rights. It is also further criticised for not adding anything new to policing that can’t be done through existing practices. These criticisms are further developed when you consider the technical limitations, such as lighting conditions, and research showing algorithmic bias exists, making it most reliable for white males. This research seeks to explore if facial recognition can be a useful tool in policing, and the role the companies who develop the technology for the police to use, can play in ensuring the technology is beneficial to the police and protects citizens’ human and data protection rights and what possible legislative requirements (for both police and FRT developers) to meet these goals might be.