Regulating Law Enforcement Use of Facial Recognition Technology and Similar Technologies. A Response to the UK Home Office's Consultation

Abstract

This document is a response to the United Kingdom (UK) Home Office’s consultation on a new legal framework for the use of facial recognition and similar technologies by law enforcement, from members and former members of the Legal, Ethical & Accountable Digital Society (LEADS) Lab at the University of Birmingham. Police forces across the UK have deployed facial recognition technology and continue to embrace the technology, despite objections from human rights groups and civil society organisations. The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement is currently not authorised by any primary legislation, but rather derives its justification from a patchwork of legal sources, including the common law. Moreover, profound uncertainty remains concerning the legal framework regulating law enforcement use of other computer vision technologies such as object detection, action detection, and emotion detection, which may have significant impacts on human rights and freedoms. We therefore welcome the Government's intention to create a new legal framework and an independent oversight body, as a new legal framework for remote monitoring technologies (including, but not limited to, facial recognition technology) is urgently needed to respect and uphold human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

This document sets out the socio-political and socio-technical context of law enforcement use of remote monitoring technologies. We then answer the seventeen consultation questions set by the UK Home Office. We emphasise the need for a principled and proportionate risk-based approach, which articulates moral and legal 'red lines', has a broad and 'future-proof' scope, imposes adequate safeguards on law enforcement use of high-risk remote monitoring systems, and establishes strong mechanisms for independent oversight, enforcement, complaints, and remedies. We hope that our concrete recommendations, listed at the bottom of this document, help the Government in its mission to create an ‘informed, robust, and future-focused specific legislative regime’ befitting the British constitutional tradition anchored in human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.