Jones Promises a Law on Live Facial Recognition, and a Watchdog That Could Block a Force

Sarah Jones has promised legislation on live facial recognition in public places, and an independent watchdog that could, in an extreme case, stop a police force using it. The policing minister told BBC London that a government consultation found the public "by and large" supported the technology and wanted reassurance about how far it would go. The Home Office is now setting out its response to that consultation, which opened last December. The rules are due to sit in the Police Reform Bill.

Jones, the MP for Croydon West, said the law would set parameters for what the cameras are for: catching wanted criminals, and searching for missing people. "If I had an outstanding parking fine, I would not expect this technology to be used for that," she said. Use should be proportionate and intelligence-led, and there should be oversight. She described the present position as a patchwork. The Met does it one way. Other forces do it another. A single statute, she said, would make the limits easier to know.

What the Met says it has done

The Metropolitan Police says live facial recognition has made London safer and led to more than 3,000 arrests in two years. Vans are sent to chosen streets. Cameras match faces against a watchlist of wanted people and missing people. Officers check a match before anyone is stopped. Faces that do not match are deleted at once, the Met says. Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes said the arrests include registered sex offenders found in breach of their conditions.

In December the Met plans to put static cameras, fixed to street furniture such as lampposts, into the West End and Soho, after a pilot in Croydon. Officers on the ground would still check matches. Jukes said the exact sites are not settled and that Oxford Street is obviously under consideration, in time for Christmas shopping. Handheld devices, which would check a suspect's identity on the spot, are also being piloted. He said the Met had spoken to government and, so far, expected a framework it could work inside without being stopped from responding to different crimes.

The objection, and the court that already sat

Big Brother Watch called the tool indiscriminate. Jasleen Chaggar, a senior legal and policy officer, told BBC London that every passer-by is scanned, and that this treats people as suspects until the machine clears them. She said that is as sensitive as handing over fingerprints or DNA, and that the presumption of innocence is the point. She also said the government had sat on consultation responses for more than six months while cameras spread to stations and shops. Civil liberties groups have warned of racial bias, including at Notting Hill Carnival. The Met says the National Physical Laboratory has assessed its system as accurate and fair. At this year's Carnival it records more than 120 arrests, more than 270,000 faces scanned, and one false alert.

The courts have already looked at the Met's use. In April the High Court rejected a challenge by youth worker Shaun Thompson and Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, who argued the cameras could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way. The court did not find a breach of human rights or privacy law. Sir Mark Rowley said afterwards that government would want to enable the technology rather than over-regulate it. Wednesday's announcement is the regulation he was told to expect: not a ban, and not a free hand. Shops are in the same argument. In August Sainsbury's suspended facial recognition at an East Dulwich store after a customer was wrongly challenged as a shoplifter. The company blamed human error. The Home Office now says private firms will have their own code. The week has already put platforms under a data order. This puts the street camera under a statute that does not yet exist.