Fourteen rights and racial justice organisations have called on Police Scotland to “immediately abandon any plans to introduce live facial recognition for public surveillance”.

Police Scotland announced last year that the force would explore the use of the AI technology. Despite a consultation finding that almost half (48 per cent) of Scots would feel uncomfortable with the rollout of the surveillance technology, the single force has announced it will continue to pursue the introduction of live facial recognition across Scotland. Deputy chief constable Jane Connors told the Scottish Police Authority that the force “will move ahead” with “the work around live facial recognition” at a meeting last week.

Live facial recognition has faced criticism from rights and equalities groups across the globe due to its impact on privacy, freedom of expression and its well-documented racial and gender biases. International research, as well as testing of the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police’s facial recognition algorithm, has identified disproportionately higher inaccuracy rates when attempting to identify people of colour and women.

Live facial recognition has been used by police forces in England and Wales and has been subject to several legal challenges. In 2019, the Court of Appeal found that South Wales Police’s use of live facial recognition technology was unlawful and had violated human rights, equalities and data protection law. The Metropolitan Police is currently facing legal action after an anti-knife crime community volunteer, Shaun Thompson, was misidentified by the technology and wrongly flagged as a criminal. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has intervened in the challenge as it believes the force is using the technology unlawfully.

In 2020, the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing held an inquiry into Police Scotland’s stated ambition to introduce live facial recognition technology by 2026. It found “no justifiable basis for Police Scotland to invest in this technology” and stated that its introduction “would be a radical departure from Police Scotland’s fundamental principle of policing by consent”.

Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at Big Brother Watch, said: “The decision from Police Scotland to explore the introduction of live facial recognition surveillance is deeply disappointing and flies in the face of recommendations from rights and equalities groups across Scotland and the UK. Live facial recognition technology has no place in a democratic society and poses a grave risk to the rights and freedoms of the Scottish public.

“There is no specific legislation governing police use of this technology, meaning that police forces across the UK are already deploying this technology absent of meaningful accountability or oversight. Police Scotland should instead take this opportunity to lead by example and pursue a rights-respecting approach to policing, rather than repeating the mistakes of English and Welsh forces who have invested taxpayers’ money in this Orwellian technology.

“This decision represents an alarming step towards a Scottish surveillance state. Police Scotland must abandon this disturbing plan and the UK government must urgently rein in police use of this intrusive technology.”