FRT has led to yet another wrongful arrest in the UK. This time, a man was detained for hours after the technology matched him to a burglary 100 miles away in spite of clear differences.
The police retained an image of the man after he was attacked 5 years prior. Even an innocent person’s face can remain searchable in police databases, potentially triggering future ‘matches’ and further scrutiny.
What’s more, FRT has repeatedly been shown to misidentify people, disproportionately impacting racialised communities.
When police treat a match like this as sufficient grounds for arrest, the presumption of innocence is weakened and due process is undermined.
This is not just a one off either. It’s a consequence of deploying biased, opaque biometric systems at scale with little legislation governing it.
The UK Home Office has just undertaken a public consultation on governing biometric technologies in policing, including FRT.
We hope this consultation leads to meaningful change to ensure this situation does not happen again.
Privacy International
nickj