Chairman's Letter to the Daily Telegraph - Facial Recognition

Chairman's Letter to the Daily Telegraph - Facial Recognition

The Association's Chairman, Lord Lingfield, a member of the British House of Lords, wrote to the influential newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, and his letter was published on 15th June 2020.

Facial recognition

SIR – Amazon has suspended the provision of its automated facial recognition (AFR) system to American law enforcement agencies in response to the unrest there. In addition, the chief executive of the tech giant IBM has withdrawn from the AFR market.

Several cities in the United States have banned the use of recognition systems due to privacy concerns. Also, there are studies indicating that such software is often biased against black and minority ethnic faces – especially those of black women.

In this country, the rules relating to the use of AFR are inconsistent. A study by the University of Essex concluded that it is “highly possible” that the Metropolitan Police’s use of computerised facial recognition to date would be held unlawful if it were challenged in court. However, police forces across the world really do need to identify those involved in violence, looting and arson.

Human “super recognisers” – who make up about 1 per cent of the population – are people with an amazing, innate ability to remember and identify faces. The association of which I am chairman is already training police forces to use the skills of such people to identify criminals in an ethical and legal manner, without resorting to techniques reminiscent of Big Brother.

Lord Lingfield (Conservative)
Chairman, The Association of Super Recognisers

London SW1