Live Facial Recognition Cameras to Scan Oxford Street
Live facial recognition cameras are to be deployed on Oxford Street, the busiest shopping street in the country, in an expansion of the technology by police. Supporters say it helps catch wanted criminals and missing people, while civil-liberties groups warn it amounts to mass surveillance without a clear legal basis. The rollout is likely to intensify a fierce debate over privacy.
Police have steadily widened their use of live facial recognition, which scans the faces of passers-by against a watchlist in real time, arguing it is a powerful tool against serious crime that has led to arrests that would otherwise not have happened. Critics counter that Britain has no specific law governing the technology, that it can misidentify people — disproportionately women and ethnic minorities in some studies — and that blanket scanning of shoppers treats everyone as a suspect. Placing the cameras on Oxford Street, walked by hundreds of thousands each day, dramatically expands who is captured. Campaigners are pressing for a legal framework or a halt. Watch whether Parliament moves to regulate the technology and how the courts respond to challenges.