Camera commissioner: Police access to passport photos risks public trust

Proposal would give police access to over 45 million images

The UK's surveillance camera commissioner, Professor Fraser Sampson, has warned that allowing police to access the passport image database for facial recognition could harm public trust.

Earlier this week, policing minister Chris Philip proposed giving police access to over the more than 45 million images stored in the passport photos database for use in facial recognition technology, to help catch criminals like shoplifters and burglars.

Philip told the Conservative Party conference that said he intends to integrate data from the police national database, the Passport Office and other national databases to simplify the matching process with a single button click.

He said a new data platform for this purpose could potentially be developed within the next two years (we've heard that before - Ed.). In the meantime, he recommends that police forces continue to search each database separately.

"I'm going to be asking police forces to search all of those databases - the police national database, which has custody images, but also other databases like the passport database - not just for shoplifting, but for crime generally, to get those matches, because the technology is now so good that you can get a blurred image and get a match for it," he said.

The policing minister also said he wanted to ensure that police consistently collect CCTV footage from crime scenes and systematically use facial recognition databases, as part of a broader "zero tolerance approach" to fight shoplifting.

The police national database contains photos of individuals who have been arrested. Users can compare images from various sources, including dashcams, doorbell cameras and home/business security cameras, with the national database.

Professor Fraser Sampson, the surveillance camera commissioner, is concerned that the proposal could create a perception among passport holders that they are effectively being placed in a "digital line-up."

"The state has large collections of good quality photographs of a significant proportion of the population - drivers and passport holders being good examples - which were originally required and given as a condition of, say, driving and international travel," he told the BBC.

"If the state routinely runs every photograph against every picture of every suspected incident of crime simply because it can, there is a significant risk of disproportionality and of damaging public trust."

Civil liberty campaigners have also objected, characterising the plans as an "Orwellian nightmare" and an infringement on British privacy principles.

"The commissioner is entirely right to warn about the expansion of facial recognition technology," said Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns manager at Liberty, the civil rights group.

She said: "History has told us this technology will be used disproportionately by the police to monitor and harass minority groups, and particularly people of colour. Expanding it will put many more people in harm's way."

Experts have also raised concerns regarding whether improving crime detection rates relies on technology adoption rather than increasing the number of police officers for investigations.

Paul Gerrard, director of public affairs at the Co-op Group, which operates 2,400 stores across the UK, spoke about shoplifting at the Tory party conference.

He said that police often do not visit Co-op shops following a theft, even when substantial evidence is available.

A spokesperson from the Home Office said the government is dedicated to equipping the police with the necessary tools and technology to solve, prevent, and bring offenders to justice.

"Technology such as facial recognition can help the police quickly and accurately identify those wanted for serious crimes, as well as missing or vulnerable people," they said.

"It also frees up police time and resources, meaning more officers can be out on the beat, engaging with communities and carrying out complex investigations."

In the time the Conservative Party has been in power, police numbers have fallen from 172,000 in 2010 to 164,000 last year - though this is a sharp rise from 150,000 in 2017-19.