End lawless and dangerous police use of facial recognition technology
End lawless and dangerous police use of facial recognition technology
Latest: June 11, 2020
The appeal is nearly here
On 23 June, we’ll be in the Court of Appeal, appealing against last year’s court decision that South Wales Police’s ongoing use of facial recognition tech in public isn’t unla…
Read moreDonate now to challenge police’s lawless and dangerous use of facial recognition technology on our streets.
Police in my home city of Cardiff are using facial recognition technology to scan and store the faces of thousands of people as they go about their everyday lives.
They’ve been using this intrusive surveillance on shoppers, football fans and even peaceful protesters – without consulting the public or asking for their consent.
There’s no law adequately regulating police use of facial recognition. It’s highly inaccurate and often misidentifies female and non-white faces. And it violates our fundamental rights to privacy, free expression and protest. It needs to stop now.
My name’s Ed Bridges and I live in Cardiff.
Since June 2015, my local police force – South Wales Police – have been using automated facial recognition technology in public spaces.
This technology scans people’s faces without their consent, making unique biometric maps which are matched against other facial images on special police databases and then stored. It isn’t clear where the images on those special databases come from – South Wales Police have said that they might even get them from social media. So anyone – you or me – could be on their database. And all of us have our faces scanned when the police go out with their high-tech vans.
The police are supposed to protect us and make us feel safe – but I think the technology is intimidating and intrusive.
I believe South Wales Police have scanned my face twice. The cameras first caught me on Queen Street in Cardiff last December, when the city centre was packed with people doing their Christmas shopping. The force still hasn’t explained why they were using this technology on shoppers.
The second time was in March this year, when police rolled out facial recognition on crowds peacefully protesting against the Cardiff Arms Fair. The van was parked directly opposite this peaceful demonstration – seemingly aimed at discouraging us from lawfully exercising our right to protest.
Having police indiscriminately scanning us all as we go about our daily lives makes our privacy rights meaningless.
The inevitable result is that people will change their behaviour and feel scared to protest or express themselves freely – in short, we’ll be less free.
There’s no law allowing facial recognition. Parliament hasn’t debated it. The public hasn’t been consulted.
There’s not even any guidance on how to deploy it, and no independent oversight to make sure its use is appropriate and our rights are protected.
It’s also dangerously inaccurate. On their own data, South Wales Police have used it at least 20 times – and 91 per cent of their ‘matches’ have been misidentifications. They’ve wrongly identified 2,451 people.
Who knows how many thousands of people have had their face mapped and image stored and don’t even know it? Who knows how many of us are now part of a police line-up that carries a huge risk of injustice?
The Metropolitan Police are also trialling the use of facial recognition in our public spaces, and Leicestershire Police have used it too.
Many more forces will follow suit unless we take a stand now.
Backed by human rights campaign organisation Liberty, I’ve written to the Chief Constable of South Wales Police to demand they stop using facial recognition technology in public spaces.
If they don’t, I intend to take them to court – but I need your help getting there.
This is policing without constraint, not policing by consent. Please donate to this important legal challenge and help stand up for our rights and those of generations to come.
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Ed Bridges
June 11, 2020
The appeal is nearly here
On 23 June, we’ll be in the Court of Appeal, appealing against last year’s court decision that South Wales Police’s ongoing use of facial recognition tech in public isn’t unlawful.
In granting us permission to appeal, Lord Justice Singh said that each of our grounds have a real prospect of success and there is a compelling reason for such important issues to be heard. I’m optimistic about the next stage in the case, but we need your support to keep it going.
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated so far. With everything that’s happening right now, I know times are hard for a lot of us, and there are many important causes that need your support.
But the pandemic has further demonstrated the need to question government and the police, and apply scrutiny to what they’re doing.
Thinking about the world we want to live in when this crisis is over, it’s really important we continue this challenge. It shouldn’t be a world with more enhanced, more oppressive mass surveillance where we’re tracked and monitored going about our lives. Let’s get authoritarian facial recognition off our streets.
Thank you for your support.
Ed Bridges
Sept. 12, 2019
I’m appealing the High Court’s decision
I’m very disappointed by the recent judgment in my case, which ruled that South Wales Police is currently using facial recognition technology lawfully.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to the case so far. My fight continues as I will be appealing the decision. I’m optimistic about my chances of success.
Despite it not going my way, the court made some crucial observations in its judgment which I will build on in my appeal. It found that facial recognition interferes with the privacy rights of everyone who is scanned. It also observed that the technology takes people’s “intrinsically private” information and is completely different from taking a photo or normal CCTV. The Court pointed out that up to 500,000 people may have been scanned by South Wales Police – the vast majority of whom were not suspected of any wrongdoing.
During the course of my case, we have seen South Wales Police expand its use of this technology. They’re now trialling using it on mobile phones. It is more important than ever that my appeal is heard and disproportionate government surveillance is stopped.
I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated so far. I will need to raise more money to continue the fight. Any gift that you are able to make will be greatly appreciated and help us keep up the pressure to end the authoritarian use of this intrusive surveillance tool.
Ed Bridges
April 26, 2019
My case is going to court in a few weeks, and you can help...
My case is going to court in a few weeks, and you can help with the final preparation.
Thanks to your generous donations so far, my case is heading for a three-day trial in Cardiff, on 21 to 23 May 2019. I will be asking the court to decide that South Wales Police’s use of facial recognition technology is unlawful because it breaches everyone’s rights to privacy. We should be free to go out in public without the police scanning our faces and taking our biometric data.
Please consider donating for this final push and to support us during the trial. With your help, we can stop the police’s unlawful use of facial recognition technology.
Ed Bridges
Oct. 19, 2018
My case is moving forward thanks to you
After a few months of putting together the best legal arguments possible, my solicitors at Liberty and I have now ‘issued’ the case at the High Court – meaning we have formally asked the Court for permission to bring this challenge. The Chief Constable of South Wales Police has already made clear that the force won’t try to prevent the case from going ahead, so we are very hopeful a hearing will be listed soon and it will all get going in early 2019.
We can’t thank everyone who has donated to this crucial challenge enough. We couldn’t have got this far without your generosity, and together we will end police use of privacy-abusing facial recognition technology in public places.
Ed Bridges
June 20, 2018
Help me reach my new target
In the space of a week, I’ve met my £3,000 target! Thank you to everyone who has donated. The support has been incredible, but I now need to keep going and reach £5,000. The more we raise the better chance we have of defeating the police’s lawless use of facial recognition technology.
Ed Bridges
June 20, 2018
Thank you for backing my case. Not far to go!
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to my case. The support has been brilliant! Please share this page to help me reach my £3,000 target.
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