Police Could Run Facial Recognition Search on Driving Licence Records

A police officer making notes on Oct. 22, 2014. (Joe Giddens/PA)

New legislation may give the police powers to run facial recognition searches on databases containing images of Britain’s 50 million driving licence holders.

British lawmakers are currently reviewing and discussing the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill, which was introduced to the House of Commons in November.

A proposal contained in clause 21 of the bill relates to giving police access to driver licence records—“particularly the photograph.”

Under current law, police authorities must demonstrate suitable reasons before they are granted access to DVLA records, such as road traffic law violations.

The idea is that drivers’ records can be used for facial recognition searches, where an image is retrieved from a crime scene from CCTV, which “might include a shoplifting offence,” said Policing Minister Chris Philip.

Discussing the bill in parliament on Dec.12, Mr. Philip said this would make “the DVLA driving licence database searchable by the police.”

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Should the proposal become part of the new bill, it would also grant new powers to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Asked whether it would be “useful” to have access to DVLA records for facial recognition matchings, the NCA Director-General Graeme Biggar agreed, adding that he would like to see more use of the technology.

“We use it within the NCA, but there is more we need to be doing within the NCA and across police forces in the round,” Mr. Biggar said.

Mr. Philip also discussed the clause 21 proposal, with the CEO of College of Policing Andy Marsh and His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke.

The policing chiefs said they were supportive of the proposal. Mr. Cooke added that police actions on facial recognition must be “ethical and lawful.”

“I am a big supporter of facial recognition used in the right way, and I think that opening up that database would benefit the detection of crime,” he added.

In the discussion of the new bill, MPs also heard that facial recognition technology (FRT) could perpetuate “racial bias” when it fails to accurately identify people with darker skin tones.

The general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Paddy Lillis has called on lawmakers to ensure that FRT is “tight and robust” to avoid racial bias.

‘Face Prints’

Criticism of FRT has been expressed by a number of human rights campaigners in the UK.

Privacy International (PI) reported last month that British MPs are “are sorely ill-informed about facial recognition technology (FRT) in the UK.”

A survey of 114 MPs, conducted by PI, revealed that over two thirds don’t know whether FRT is used in their own constituencies. Most of the respondents didn’t know there is no specific UK law pertaining to FRT.

“Our MPs are asleep at the wheel, which undermines everyone’s privacy in public, and they need to wake up,” said advocacy officer at PI, Josie Thum.

The government has recently announced plans to use facial recognition technology (FRT)  to tackle the rise of retail crime in the country.

Big Brother Watch have previously said that FRT creates a ‘faceprint’ of everyone who passes in front of camera “often without our knowledge or consent.”

The charity has called on strict rules to govern the police use of “face prints.”

The call came after the government announced plans for police to check CCTV images of offenders against official databases, including passports, as part of a new zero-tolerance approach to shoplifting.

“The algorithm which matches crime scene images against various databases is so accurate that even where the image is blurred and the face is partially obscured, it is possible to get matches,” Mr. Philip said.

In the next two years, the government plans to create a new data platform, allowing the search of all databases in one go.

Mr. Philip added that technology will help identify offenders who commit large volumes of shoplifting and those with links to organised gangs.