The Police National Database houses millions of mugshot images, including those of individuals arrested but not charged. Deleting these images has been deemed impractical.
The United Kingdom’s crime and policing minister, Chris Philp, has announced new plans to use the facial images of more than 45 million individuals stored in Britain’s passport database to aid in identifying suspects in criminal investigations. Philp made this announcement at a side event during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. He acknowledged that the police already have the authority to access the passport database and revealed that they would have a new data platform to facilitate their use of this resource within the next two years.
The Home Office has been working on creating a modern data platform that consolidates its various databases for almost a decade, with initial reports dating back to 2016. Philp expressed his desire for this new platform to integrate multiple databases, including the immigration and asylum biometrics system for foreign nationals. This integration would allow law enforcement to search for matches using facial images obtained from sources like CCTV footage, doorbell cameras, or dashcams.
Philp stressed the need for immediate action, saying, “I’m asking them to do it now operationally. In the medium term, meaning the next two years, we’ll aim to create a new data platform so you can press one button to search it all at once. Currently, you have to use a separate search database, but they should start doing that now.”
The decision to use the passport database for identification purposes is a response to complaints from retail industry executives regarding the police’s inadequate response to violent incidents against staff and thefts from retail stores. Home Office statistics show that in over 54% of all reported shoplifting crimes last year, authorities never identified any suspects.
Current Legal Issues Under the Spotlight
Facial recognition technology operates by comparing images of unknown individuals’ faces, like those captured on CCTV, with a database containing known individuals’ facial images. It serves as a tool for identifying and verifying the identity of people based on their facial features.
In the United Kingdom, there are no specific laws governing the police’s use of facial recognition technology. However, regulations exist for other forms of biometric data like fingerprints and DNA. The High Court ruled in 2012 that this database should not include facial images of individuals who were arrested but not subsequently charged. Nonetheless, the police deemed it impractical to delete all of these images due to their sheer volume.
Privacy advocates, like Emmanuelle Andrews, a policy and campaigns manager at the human rights group Liberty, express concerns about the government enabling the police to use private dashcam footage, the immigration and asylum system, and the passport database for facial recognition purposes. Critics argue that this transformation effectively turns ordinary citizens, loved ones, and public servants into surveillance operatives, raising significant ethical and privacy questions. Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, further criticizes the government’s plan to convert passport photos of over 45 million individuals into a massive police database. She deems it Orwellian and a substantial violation of British privacy principles, asserting that individuals who provided their images for travel purposes would now be included in secret police lineups without their consent or the ability to object.
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