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A new report says that policing’s use of live facial recognition technology needs national coordination to maximise the opportunities to improve public trust and confidence and minimise the risks as government looks to consult on a new legal framework for it.
“It’s a game-changer,” says Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley. Marking the increased roll-out of LFR technology to more forces this year, Sir Mark writes in his foreword to a new report from Leapwise Advisory: “its use should be consistent and effective everywhere.”
Live Facial Recognition: the case for coordinated national expansion argues for the creation of a full time role for a national lead for LFR sitting in the nascent National Centre for Policing with a team focused on sharing best practice, collecting statistics and commissioning research. While the Met’s Lindsey Chiswick holds this brief for the national Police Chiefs’ Council, she, in common with all NPCC leads does this along with her day job.
“The national coordination capability could be the driving force for the development of police biometrics, enabling policing to seize the future rather than simply responding to it.”
LFR was first used by policing back in 2015 and over the last ten years, there have been more than 600 deployments scanning over 13 million faces, with 10m+ in the last 18 months alone. The Met has ramped up its deployment in the last year and overall its use has led to 1,300 arrests.
The timing of this report comes as seven forces start to roll-out their use of LFR technology that is being installed in ten Mercedes Sprinter vans. This investment comes from the Home Office. Bedfordshire Police has already deployed LFR with Greater Manchester Police about to do so imminently. Hampshire and Thames Valley along with Surrey and Sussex join West Yorkshire as the latest forces to trial the capability.
Speaking at this week’s NPCC Innovation and Digital Summit, Lindsey Chiswick said of the roll-out: “it has been incredibly tricky to navigate from start to finish.” Part of that comes from the algorithm used in the LFR technology. She told the gathered audience: “If your forces are thinking of buying an algorithm for facial recognition technology, it is so important that you get it tested so you understand how you can operate it in a fair way.”
The report recognises the potential for legal challenge and loss of public confidence if forces adopt poor practice and make mistakes.
The way that live facial recognition technology works is through matching the live capture of someone’s face with a database of faces – a watchlist – to see if there is a match. Where there is a match, the system provides an alert and where there is not, the capture is deleted. Lindsey told the audience at the summit that a watchlist is created for the deployment and then deleted.
She also explained about the way the algorithm had been tested for bias by the National Physical Laboratory. “They told us there’s a scale of zero to one. They told us that at 0.6 and above, there is no statistically significant bias in the system. If you dig down below that, the lower you get, the more bias starts to emerge in that system. So we ensure we always deploy over 0.6.”
Looking for legal certainty for LFR, the report also recommends the creation of a single framework around police use of biometrics more broadly. This would require parliamentary time to put it on the statute books and a consultation on that is expected before the end of the year.
“Public trust would be retained by higher standards, fewer mistakes and clearer national messaging. Efficiency would be enhanced through centralised enabling activities around procurement, training and algorithmic testing. Coupled with a single legal framework, a more cohesive LFR model could be embedded such that current and next gen police biometrics can be implemented effectively in a manner that retains public trust and confidence.”
Full report here – Live Facial Recognition: the case for coordinated national expansion.
Read about my experience of observing LFR at Oxford Circus in central London earlier this year – 10 things to know about Live Facial Recognition technology. And look out for our webinar on 13 November with Bedfordshire and South Wales Police. Registration open soon.
