Facial recognition cameras serve a useful purpose and their use by the Police and should be quite clearly marked in areas where they are being used in mass demonstrations.
However, a Freedom of Information Request by ” Liberty” has ascertained that a local Council as 130 Cameras that have the software in them to be used for Facial Recognition. The Council say that only one of these Camera’s is used and that is in the Town Hall and it only has one subject on the camera’s watchlist.
Liberty say that these type of “watchlists” should be made public and that it is everyone’s right to know if they are on one , which seems fair.
I suppose the only problem is people covering their faces when near the cameras, so the facial recognition cannot work. Though this by it’s very nature makes them more likely to be spotted.
The benefits in using this technology far outweigh the negatives for example, where cameras can be used for supporting a Police Investigation or assisting with a missing person enquiry. I assume the technology does not need to be “live” but can be used where there is CCTV film footage to be reviewed.
In “live usage” by the Police watchlists are created 24 hours before the deployment in well signposted areas , they are not continuously running in the background.
