Police Scotland is advancing its plans to implement live facial recognition (LFR) technology, despite significant concerns from rights groups, specialists, and segments of the public regarding its ethical, legal, and social implications. The force has stated its intention to move forward with the technology following a Scottish Police Authority meeting, where Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors said Police Scotland “will move ahead” with LFR work.
Technology and Regulatory Background
Live facial recognition uses artificial intelligence to analyse real-time video footage of crowds, matching faces against a database of images known as a watchlist. While this technology is already in use with police forces in England and Wales, its rollout in Scotland is in a preliminary phase and subject to public engagement and regulatory review. The Home Office mandates that such deployments be “intelligence-led, targeted, time-bound, and geographically limited,” with police officers retaining accountability for actions taken following software alerts.
Currently, Scotland lacks specific legislation that governs live facial recognition, raising questions about lawfulness, accountability, and technical reliability. The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner and other legal experts emphasise the need for a robust regulatory framework to ensure compliance with human rights, equality law, and data protection standards. The Law Society of Scotland notes there would be considerable benefit in producing such a regulatory framework, drawing lessons from legal challenges in England and Wales.
Criticism and Public Response
Fourteen rights and racial justice organisations have jointly called for Police Scotland to abandon plans for public surveillance using LFR, citing risks of “racial injustice, creeping surveillance, and democratic erosion”. International studies and UK-based trials have found LFR systems disproportionately misidentify people of colour and women, leading to accusations of bias and wrongful arrests. The Equality and Human Rights Commission recently intervened in a legal challenge over LFR use by the Metropolitan Police, arguing it is being used unlawfully.
A consultation found that 48 per cent of Scots would feel uncomfortable with a rollout of LFR surveillance, underscoring broad public reservations about the potential for racial and gender bias, privacy erosion, and errors leading to wrongful criminal identification.
