Brian Sims
Editor
Brian Sims
Editor
SOUTH WALES Police has been deploying additional live facial recognition cameras in Cardiff during this year’s Six Nations rugby internationals as a further measure purpose-designed to keep city centre visitors safe. The surveillance system was deployed for the first time on 22 February when Wales hosted Ireland at the Principality Stadium and will be in use again for the Round 5 match with England on 15 March.
In practice, a network of temporary cameras has been positioned across the city centre. The feeds from these cameras are transmitted to live facial recognition vans where police officers will then be alerted to the presence of any individuals who are listed on a pre-determined ‘watchlist’. Officers are then deployed in response to an alert in order to confirm whether the individual who creates that alert is who the police need to speak to before taking appropriate action.
Cameras are positioned at key points across Cardiff city centre covering the main pedestrian entry points, in turn effectively creating what South Wales Police references as a ‘Zone of Safety’, itself a concept funded by the Home Office. For its part, the facial recognition technology is working in exactly the same way as traditional live deployments, with faces being compared against the aforementioned ‘watchlist’ of individuals who are wanted for committing crime, banned from an area or pose a risk to the public.
While the cameras are similar in appearance to traditional CCTV cameras, they don’t record and, in the event of no match, the data is immediately and automatically deleted. The cameras are specifically marked as police cameras.
Legal challenge
Assistant Chief Constable Trudi Meyrick commented: “The expansion of facial recognition cameras around the city centre really enhances our ability to keep visitors safe from harm. Our priority is to keep the public safe and this technology helps us to achieve that.”
Meyrick continued: “We understand the concerns raised about the use of facial recognition technology, but it’s important to remember that it has never resulted in a wrongful arrest. Further, there have been no false alerts for several years as the technology and our understanding has evolved.”
Since a legal challenge was posed to the use of the technology, there has ben the development of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Code of Practice and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice, with the latter setting out the police service’s obligations when it comes to the use of live facial recognition.
South Wales Police has reiterated the truism that a series of trial deployments and the independent testing and evaluation of data duly confirmed that this form of surveillance technology doesn’t discriminate on the grounds of gender, age or race based on the “responsible way” in which facial recognition is used.
On that note, Meyrick observed: “The level of oversight and independent scrutiny means that we are now in a stronger position than ever before to be able to demonstrate that our use of facial recognition technology is fair, legitimate, ethical and proportionate.”
Indeed, if this particular trial is successful, the concept could be used at other major events and locations in South Wales.
Facial recognition was previously used on an intelligence-led deployment at a concert in Cardiff after similar events in other parts of the UK had resulted in more than 220 smart phones being stolen from those attending them.
In fact, 30 individuals who were thought to be part of an organised crime group specialising in stealing smart phones at music events were placed on a ‘watchlist’. This proactive measure led to the identification of one suspect, identified through facial recognition and arrested for going equipped to steal. Notably there were no reported mobile phone thefts.
“Shocking expansion”
Responding to South Wales Police’s announcement, Madeleine Stone (senior advocacy officer at privacy-focused organisation Big Brother Watch) explained: “Embedding facial recognition surveillance in a city-wide CCTV network represents a shocking expansion of police surveillance and turns Cardiff into an Orwellian zone of biometric surveillance. This unprecedented use of the technology could pave the way for the mass roll-out of permanent facial recognition surveillance systems across the UK.”
Stone continued: “Live facial recognition technology turns us into walking barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects. This network of facial recognition cameras will make it impossible for Cardiff residents and visitors to opt-out of a biometric police identity check.”
Further, Stone noted: “For the last three years, South Wales Police has not made a single arrest due to the use of this technology at sporting events and yet continues to waste taxpayers’ money on this rights-abusing technology. No other democracy in the world spies on its population with live facial recognition in this cavalier and chilling way. South Wales Police must immediately stop this dystopian trial.”
The last arrest made by South Wales Police using live facial recognition technology occurred on 23 March 2022, despite multiple deployments at other rugby and football events.
