Concerns raised over police’s planned use of facial recognition software at Bedford River Festival

A Bedford-based security expert has raised concerns over the planned use of facial recognition software by Bedfordshire Police at this weekend’s River Festival.

Bedfordshire Police say they’re deploying state-of-the-art facial recognition technology for the first time this weekend to catch the county’s most wanted offenders and keep the public safe.

But Andy Chesterman of Privacy Helper has raised concerns over the use of a system and the right for law-abiding citizens not to be captured by such equipment.

“The use of live facial recognition in public places is always going to be controversial as it involves the use of biometric data (special category personal data) without any restrictions or controls over who is subject to processing (children or adults),” said Mr Chesterman.

“If the area of processing is clearly marked, with a reasonable diversion in place to enable those wishing to exercise their rights to object to scanning, then this would strengthen their use case.”

The Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology will be in operation in and around the surrounding area of the River Festival on Saturday and Sunday (20 and 21 July), it’s the first time it will be used in Bedfordshire.

Bedfordshire Police have confirmed the locations where LFR is deployed will be clearly marked.

In the announcement from Bedfordshire Police, they say the technology compares faces from a live camera feed against a police-generated watchlist in real time.

It then analyses key facial features and creates a mathematical representation of these features, known as a facial biometric template, which is then compared to known faces to find possible matches.

The watchlist includes suspects wanted for criminal offences, individuals with outstanding warrants for an arrest ordered by the courts, and those with notifications requirements imposed by courts.

An officer will review any images flagged as a potential match to determine whether further action is needed.

Detective Superintendent Aman Dhaliwal, said: “With more than 250,000 visitors expected at Bedford River Festival, our top priorities are to ensure the safety and security of the public and deliver a safe, peaceful and enjoyable event.

“Although we have many years of experiences leading policing operations at various large-scale events, each year brings its own challenges and we’re thankful to be able to harness technology such as this for the sole purpose of fighting crime and protecting people.”

Images that trigger an alert are deleted immediately after use or within 24 hours, while the images and biometric data of individuals who do not trigger an alert will be deleted automatically. Once deleted, they cannot be retrieved.

Liberty

The use of LFR has also attracted comments on its Facebook page such as: “Ah great – so you’ve ironed out all the bugs where it can’t tell people from ethnic minorities apart and so flags them all as wanted suspects?”

“The use of face-based recognition systems can amplify racial and gender bias and thus can harm people’s work lives.” And “1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual.”

Liberty, who campaigns to “make sure everyone in the UK is treated fairly”, have also commented that this technology has no place in society.

Sam Grant, director of advocacy at Liberty, told the Local Democracy Service: “Live facial recognition is an unregulated mass surveillance tool which changes what it means to walk down the streets, pop to the shops, or enjoy music at festivals.

“We should all be concerned at what this means for our rights – to privacy, to protest, and to freedom from discrimination. The expansion of this technology to Bedfordshire Police is of grave concern.

“And despite being widely used now by police forces, too little is known about how the police are using live facial recognition. The data retention policies are unclear, and there is much a police force can do with live video feeds,” he said.

Mr Grant added: “What we do know – live facial recognition deployments are deeply intrusive and dangerous in the hands of an all too often racist and misogynistic police force.

“Avoiding live facial recognition deployments, or covering your face while in these areas has been treated by other police forces as suspicious activity in the past.

“As such we urge everyone attending the Bedford River Festival to be aware of the impact of facial recognition and raise concerns with their local MP. Quite simply, this technology, and its surveillance-state implications, have no place in our society,” he said.

Sledgehammer to crack a nut?

But Mr Chesterman’s still concerned.

“From another perspective, the Police go into little detail on the nature of their watch lists, other than those wanted by the Courts or under Court restrictions.

“Are they taking this opportunity to identify “petty thieves” or those suspected of more serious crimes? A sledgehammer to crack a nut, or a genuine use case?

“If the area of operation is clearly marked, surely anyone wanted by the police would avoid said area? Thus negating the need for live facial recognition as they’d only be scanning families out for the day with nothing to hide.”

The Bedford Independent put these concerns to Bedfordshire Police and also asked how secure the system is, is the recovery of deleted images really impossible, for example.

A spokesperson for the force repeated some of the information contained in their announcement that we have already reported but did comment on the suggestion that people the police are looking for will avoid the areas where LFR will be used.

“We recognise this,” they said, “and if this means that individuals posing a risk to others, or who had been intending to engage in criminality are deterred then the prevention of crime taking place is a good outcome.”

They also added additional information about their system’s integrity.

“Individuals who do not trigger an alert have their image and biometric data deleted immediately and is irretrievable. This is a function that has been built into the software which has been tested independently by the National Physics Laboratory.

“We would like to reassure the public that the data is irretrievable once deleted.”

In addition to LFR, there will be police officers on hand throughout the festival to keep people safe.

For more information visit the Bedfordshire Police’s website or if you have any concerns, you can email [email protected].

Additional reporting by John Guinn
Local Democracy Service