The global human rights charity has taken part in a recent feedback exercise to air its opposition to expanded use of a technology that Westminster has promised to ‘ramp up’
Facial recognition technology “should have no place” in Scotland, a human rights charity has said as Police Scotland considers its adoption.
Amnesty International has warned that implementing the technology would show an “alarming disregard for fundamental human rights”. No final decision has been taken by the force on using the technology, but it is exploring the idea.
Facial recognition – in both live and retrospective forms – has already been deployed by various forces across England and Wales, and the Home Office announced late last year that it hopes to “ramp up” the use of the technology by police in the coming months. This expansion comes on the back of £12.6m invested by the department in 2025, it said.
North of the border, the Scottish Police Authority, which has oversight of Police Scotland, has said that any plans to rollout facial recognition technology would need to be in line with a specific code of practice covering deployment, how the public would be informed, and how any ‘watch list’ would be compiled and retained.
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But Amnesty International has argued that any use of the technology would be beyond the pale.
As part of a consultation on future biometrics strategy recently undertaken by Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority, the charity responded setting outs its concerns, including that claims that the tech would limit people’s rights to privacy, peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression.
It also says that facial recognition has been proven to disproportionally impact ethnic minority groups and more deprived communities.
Neil Cowan, Amnesty’s Scotland programme director, said: “The police must listen to the voices of people across Scotland, who are horrified at the prospect of this mass surveillance tool being rolled out on Scotland’s streets. In showing an alarming disregard for fundamental human rights and in disproportionately targeting people of colour, this invasive and disturbing technology should have no place in a Scotland that respects and values human rights. Any claims by Police Scotland to be a rights-respecting force will ring hollow unless these plans are dropped. If they are not, Scotland will be dragged backwards on human rights.”
The consultation, which closed earlier this month, said that biometric technologies “offer transformative opportunities for modern policing” but recognises there is a need to embed a commitment to human rights, ethics and transparency in any strategy.
As well as live facial recognition, it also covered CCTV recordings, body-worn video, drones, digital forensics and recovered evidence.
A version of this story originally appeared on PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood
