Holyrood urged to block use of facial recognition technology

Academics raised concerns about problems with the technology and argued it is “intrusive”.

In a submission to MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing, they called for a moratorium.

While Police Scotland told the committee it has “no current plans” to bring the software in, or “any other new biometric technology”, Dr Angela Daly, of Strathclyde Law School, called on the committee to “become an international leader in ethical technology policy” and suspend the use of any such technology.

Dr Daly warned of “deficiencies of facial recognition technology, the intrusive ways in which [it] is already being used to monitor indiscriminately the general public – and not only those suspected of a crime – and the less-than-ethical conditions in which facial recognition technology is being researched and developed”.

Dr Garfield Benjamin, of Solent University in Southampton, said: “When a member of the public enters a space monitored by facial recognition, they are automatically placed in a police line-up.

“This fundamentally changes the role and power of the police, from one in which evidence in a case must be built to prove guilt into one in which everyone is assumed guilty all the time.

“Should Police Scotland (or, indeed, any police force) go ahead with the use of facial recognition then they are making an active choice to shift policing into a state of constant surveillance, forcing citizens to live beneath a constant machinic gaze.”

Gillian MacDonald, assistant chief constable for Police Scotland, said the single force had the power to undertake retrospective facial matching using the Police National Database, but said there were “no current plans” to introduce software or “other new biometric technology”.

Sub-committee convener John Finnie said: “While the police service need to be able to fight crime effectively, any intrusion into citizens’ privacy must be proportionate. We look forward to beginning our inquiry.”