Facial recognition systems will be introduced across the country, the government has said as it welcomed the failure of a legal challenge to the technology.
The case against the Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition technology (LFT) in London was brought by two people over concerns it could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way.
The cameras are usually mounted on vans in busy high streets and designed to identify people on police watchlists if they pass by.
Youth worker Shaun Thompson, one of the claimants, said he was misidentified by the technology. The other person bringing the claim was Silkie Carlo, from the group Big Brother Watch.
Their lawyer told the High Court that LFT would also make it “impossible” for Londoners to travel without their biometric data being taken.
But judges ruled on Tuesday that the claimants’ human rights had not been breached and the force’s policy gave “adequate indication of the circumstances in which LFR will be used”.
They also said the argument the technology risked discriminating against people due to their race had not been convincing.
Hellbound and Down 