High Court rules Met Police use of live facial recognition is lawful

Youth worker Shaun Thompson, and Silkie Carlo, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, brought the claim over concerns that facial recognition could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way. The Met Police will continue to use the technology, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley calling the ruling an "important victory for public safety". In February 2024, he was stopped, detained and questioned by police in London after being matched by LFR with a different person on a police watchlist. Thompson said the experience was "shocking and unfair". In their challenge, Thompson and Carlo argued that the use of LFR breaches the right to privacy outlined in the European Convention of Human Rights. They argued that the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are also being breached, claiming that the "excessively broad" discretion afforded to officers had a "chilling effect" on the ability to protest. Lawyers argued that the plans to mount permanent installations in the capital would make it "impossible" for Londoners to travel without their biometric data being taken and processed. Lord Justice Holgate and Mrs Justice Farbey said in the 74-page ruling that the "risk and potential scope for discrimination on grounds of race was no more than faintly asserted". The legal team taking the challenge against LFR had raised concerns that the technology would be deployed in disproportionally "in areas of London which are lived in by ethnic minority communities". The judgment also stated that Thompson and Carlo's human rights had not been breached. Met Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said the High Court ruling was a "significant and important victory for public safety". He added: "The courts have confirmed our approach is lawful. The public supports its use. It works. And it helps us keep Londoners safe. "The question is no longer whether we should use live facial recognition, it's why we would choose not to." In response to the ruling, Thompson said: "No one should be treated like a criminal due to a computer error. "I was compliant with the police but my bank cards and passport weren't enough to convince the police the facial recognition tech was wrong. "It's like stop and search on steroids. It's clear the more widely this is used, the more innocent people like me risk being criminalised." Plans set out by the Home Office in January will increase the number of vans from 10 to 50 and make them available to all forces across England and Wales.