November 11, 2019

In a blog post accompanying the opinion and the report, the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, says that the results of the ICO’s investigation into the trials of LFR by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and South Wales Police (SWP) “raise serious concerns about the use of a technology that relies on huge amounts of sensitive personal information”.

The ICO found that the current combination of laws, codes and practices relating to LFR will “not drive the ethical and legal approach that’s needed to truly manage the risk that this technology presents”.

In Ms Denham’s view, the absence of a statutory code that speaks to the specific challenges posed by LFR will “increase the likelihood of legal failures and undermine public confidence in its use”. As a result, the key recommendation arising from the ICO’s investigation is to call for the Government to introduce a statutory and binding code of practice on the deployment of LFR. Ms Denham says that this is necessary “in order to give the police and the public enough knowledge as to when and how the police can use LFR systems in public spaces”. The ICO will therefore be liaising with the Home Office, the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, the Biometrics Commissioner, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner and policing bodies on how to progress its recommendation for a statutory code of practice.

Ms Denham also recommends that more work should be done to eliminate bias in the algorithms, particularly that associated with ethnicity. This will help and maintain public confidence and cross-community support, she says.

Given that the recommendations “have such far reaching applications for law enforcement in the UK”, Ms Denham has taken the step of issuing the first Commissioner’s Opinion under UK data protection laws.

Ms Denham says that the Opinion makes clear that there are well-defined data protection rules that police forces need to follow before and during deployment of LFR. It also recognises the high statutory threshold that must be met to justify the use of LFR, and demonstrate accountability, under the UK’s data protection laws. That threshold is appropriate considering the potential invasiveness of this technology. The Opinion also sets out the practical steps police forces must take to demonstrate legal compliance.

Although the ICO’s investigation has concluded, Ms Denham says that “work in this area is far from over”. The ICO’s own research shows that public support for the police using facial recognition to catch criminals is high, but less so when it comes to the private sector operating the technology in a quasi-law enforcement capacity. The ICO is separately investigating use of LFR in the private sector, including where LFR in used in partnership with law enforcement. The ICO will be reporting on those findings in due course. To read Ms Denham’s blog post in full and for links to the report and the opinion, click here.