London-Al Jazeera Net
The start of this week was not normal in the commercial center "Stratford" located in the east of the British capital, when a police car carrying face-to-face cameras arrived to search for wanted persons, in the first public and actual application of this controversial technology, which has aroused political and human rights.
And the technology of faces recognition cameras has been a subject of controversy for many years, before the police in Britain decided to apply it gradually in a number of places that record high cases of violence, beginning in the capital London as the most densely populated city had it not been for many studies that made many doubt its efficacy.
This technology relies on placing cameras on police cars equipped with facial recognition technology and linked to a database that includes the faces of about 5,000 defendants in serious cases of murder and armed assault.
These cameras scan the faces of passers-by, and in the event that any features identical to those of those wanted by justice are detected, an alarm will be sounded in devices carried by the police for the purpose of arresting the wanted person.
And it appeared through the first application of this technology that the police do not want to provoke the citizens by imposing them by force, as it places a sign next to face recognition cameras saying that the technology is applied in this place, and that there is no legal justification forcing people to pass in front of these cameras that Police say it will make a quantum leap in fighting crime, especially stabbing crimes that have skyrocketed in Britain.
| Surveillance cameras to combat crime in London (Al Jazeera Net) |
It appears through the desperate defense of the British police agency about the application of this technology that it will not retract it, as it described it in more than one report to it as an "amazing way to fight crime", providing assurances to citizens that its application will not be random, but will be used as needed and in places that rise It has a crime rate.
Also, the database of suspects' faces will not exceed 10 thousand, and the faces that will be monitored by these cameras for ordinary citizens will be stored in a closed and independent database and it is forbidden for any other government agency to access them.
British police provide statistics that say it shows the efficacy of this technology, because 70% of the defendants who were chased by face recognition cameras were reached, while the error rate in monitoring a person who was not wanted by the police is 1 out of 100 cases.
The police refuse to talk about the costs of applying this technology, but exclusive information obtained by The Independent newspaper says that the first experiments of this technology cost the state treasury the equivalent of $ 220,000 without achieving any result and without reaching any suspects, which makes it an expensive technology compared to its fruits.
The new technology put London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a difficult position as he tries to balance security concerns and human rights fears of violating the privacy of citizens, as he stressed that he will make sure that this technology is used in line with ethical and legal standards, stressing that he will not allow the laying of cameras to watch faces Wanted for justice on every street of London, which may restrict citizens ’freedom of movement.
In order to calm the growing human anger, Sadiq Khan promised to subject this technology to continuous evaluation, to ensure that it does not violate human rights or transparency in preserving the personal data of citizens and their images away from any exploitation other than maintaining security, justifying his decision to agree to adopt this technology by wanting to preserve the security of the population. London city.
| The use of facial recognition technology met with human rights criticism, considering that Britain is the first European country to implement it (Getty Images) |
Human rights criticism
In statements to Al Jazeera Net, the Big Brother watch said that it was closely following the police's use of this technology in several places in the capital, London, stressing that on two occasions of using these cameras, a failure rate of 100% was recorded and the error led to The arrest of a young black man, who later appeared to be unrelated to the wanted person.
The British organization described face recognition technology as a "shocking waste of police time and money and a blatant assault on our civil liberties", and expressed disappointment at the position of the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, who was given the green light to adopt these cameras.
In contrast to the reassuring figures provided by the British police to show the efficacy of the new technology, a study conducted by Professor Pete Fossey at the University of Sussex shows that the percentage of cameras ’success in identifying suspects reached only 19%, and during the period between 2016 and 2018 from the test of this face recognition technology reached His failure rate was 96%, and he only arrested eight wanted men over two years.
Among the official and highly critical of this technology is Professor Paul Wells, Chairman of the Independent Commission to Monitor Police Use of "Biometric" data for citizens of fingerprints and photos. In his annual report, the British official said that the use of this technology by the police was in a "catastrophic manner and could lead to breaking laws", which is the situation Who still keeps it.
Perhaps the sensitivity of British human and civil bodies from the use of this technology is that its country will be among the first countries in the world to use it and there is only in this box except China, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Malaysia, and defenders of the right to privacy feel angry that the United Kingdom will be the first European country to take refuge For this technique, knowing that the level of crime is lower compared to other European countries.