The UK’s first use of city-wide facial recognition is set to be installed ahead of Ireland’s Six Nations game against Wales in Cardiff this weekend.
On Sunday, South Wales Police announced that it will be deploying additional live facial recognition cameras in Cardiff during this year’s Six Nations rugby internationals, “as a further measure to keep city centre visitors safe”.
A spokesperson said that a network of temporary cameras will be positioned across the city centre.
The feeds from these cameras will be transmitted to ‘Live Facial Recognition’ vans where officers will be alerted to anyone who is on a predetermined watchlist.
However, there has been criticism of the Welsh police’s actions, regarding privacy and civil liberties.
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Big Brother Watch is an activist organisation at the forefront of the UK campaign to stop live facial recognition surveillance.
Madeleine Stone, the group’s senior advocacy officer, believes that “embedding facial recognition surveillance in a city-wide CCTV network represents a shocking expansion of police surveillance, and turns Cardiff into an Orwellian zone of biometric surveillance”.
“This unprecedented use of the technology could pave the way for the mass rollout of permanent facial recognition surveillance across the UK,” she continued.
“Live facial recognition technology turns us into walking barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects. This network of facial recognition cameras will make it impossible for Cardiff residents and visitors to opt-out of a biometric police identity check.
“For the last three years, South Wales Police has not made a single arrest due to use of this technology at sporting events, yet the force continues to waste taxpayers’ money on this rights-abusing technology. No other democracy in the world spies on its population with live facial recognition in this cavalier and chilling way. South Wales Police must immediately stop this dystopian trial.”
Police say that cameras will be positioned at key points across the city centre of Cardiff, covering the main pedestrian entry points
Big Brother Watch has argued that this makes it “impossible” for members of the public to avoid the cameras, and said that “forces have previously deployed live facial recognition vans equipped with one camera”.
Welsh police also stated that while the cameras are similar in appearance to CCTV cameras, they do not record and in the event of no match, data is immediately and automatically deleted.
These cameras will also be specifically marked as police cameras, they added.
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Assistant Chief Constable Trudi Meyrick said: “The expansion of facial recognition cameras around the city centre really enhances our ability to keep visitors safe from harm.
“Our priority is to keep the public safe and this technology helps us achieve that. We understand the concerns which are raised about the use of facial recognition technology but it is important to remember that it has never resulted in a wrongful arrest and there have been no false alerts for several years as the technology and our understanding has evolved.”
A legal challenge was previously mounted against the use of the technology, which has resulted in the development of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Code of Practice and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice.
“A series of trial deployments and the independent testing and evaluation of data confirmed that the technology does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, age or race, based on the responsible way in which facial recognition is used by South Wales Police,” a police statement continues.
If the trial is successful, the concept could be used at other major events and locations in South Wales.
Ireland face Wales in their third match of the Six Nations on Saturday, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Kick-off is at 2.15pm.