Justice Sub-Committee on Policing - the Scottish Parliament: Facial Recognition: How Policing in Scotland Makes Use of This Technology (original) (raw)
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British Journal of Criminology, 2020
Facial recognition technology is just one of a suite of new digital tools police and other security providers around the world are adopting in an effort to function more safely and efficiently. This paper reports results from a major new London-based study exploring public responses to Live Facial Recognition (LFR): a technology that enables police to carry out real-time automated identity checks in public spaces. We find that public trust and legitimacy are important factors predicting acceptance or rejection of LFR. Crucially, trust and particularly legitimacy may serve to alleviate privacy concerns about police use of this technology. In an era where police use of new digital technologies is only likely to increase, these findings have important implications for police-public relations and how the 'public voice' is fed into debates.
Information Polity
Emerging technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are laying the foundation for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude never seen before. This article focuses on facial recognition, now rapidly introduced in many police authorities around the world, with expectations of enhanced security but also subject to concerns related to privacy. The article examined a recent case where the Swedish police used the controversial facial recognition application Clearview AI, which led to a supervisory investigation that deemed the police’s use of the technology illegitimate. Following research question guided the study: How do the trade-offs between privacy and security unfold in the police use of facial recognition technology? The study was designed as a qualitative document analysis of the institutional dialogue between the police and two regulatory authorities, theoretically we draw on technological affordance and legitimacy. The results show how the police’s use o...
Information polity, 2022
Emerging technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are laying the foundation for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude never seen before. This article focuses on facial recognition, now rapidly introduced in many police authorities around the world, with expectations of enhanced security but also subject to concerns related to privacy. The article examined a recent case where the Swedish police used the controversial facial recognition application Clearview AI, which led to a supervisory investigation that deemed the police's use of the technology illegitimate. Following research question guided the study: How do the trade-offs between privacy and security unfold in the police use of facial recognition technology? The study was designed as a qualitative document analysis of the institutional dialogue between the police and two regulatory authorities, theoretically we draw on technological affordance and legitimacy. The results show how the police's use of facial recognition gives rise to various tensions that force the police as well as policy makers to rethink and further articulate the meaning of privacy. By identifying these tensions, the article contributes with insights into various controversial legitimacy issues that may arise in the area of rules in connection with the availability and use of facial recognition.
Policing and Society, 2021
The body-worn camera (BWC), an audio and video recording device, has been increasingly adopted by law enforcement across the globe. Drawing on a qualitative study, this paper will explore the use of these mobile devices in the UK and examine the challenges that have been faced during its implementation in two British police forces. In particular, we will discuss how these cameras move with the police officer's bodily movements (both intentionally and unintentionally) and are used for policing purposes in different settings (such as urban and rural contexts or different operational units). Based on a set of semistructured interviews with 26 police officers, this article will explore the contextual, technical and ethical challenges that hinder the use of BWCs in such settings. This study concludes that these practical and technosocial challenges are often interlinked. The context of use of these cameras and how they operate technically are connected, often raising significant ethical issues particularly for data management and storage. Ultimately it is argued that the operational perspective of the frontline officer is invaluable when designing and implementing technologies so they are policeman-proof.
Can Technology Work for Policing? Citizen Perceptions of Police-Body Worn Cameras
The American Review of Public Administration, 2020
Recent incidents between police and people of color have further strained police-community relationships. Scholars, practitioners, activists, policy makers, and several police departments have advocated for the implementation of body-worn cameras (BWC), a technological adoption promoted to address growing mistrust in the United States. This article examines perception of this technological adoption through 40 in-depth interviews in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, this article uses the context of police BWC to explore how the integration of technological advancements impacts the relationships between communities and local governments-namely police departments. The evidence suggests that residents believe BWC should improve officer behavior and increase police legitimacy, but cameras will not increase trust between police and the community. Based on the findings, this research identifies the limitations of BWC technology and assesses potential collaborative strategies available for police organizations related to the adoption and use of BWC.
Police Perceptions of Body-Worn Cameras
Social Science Research Network, 2017
Over the past several years there has been resistance from police officers towards implementing body-worn camera (BWC) technology. This paper assesses police perceptions towards BWCs in Pittsburgh and other cities to better characterize and explain such resistance, and also gain insight into the efficacy and potential benefits of BWCs from officers who have used the technology in their daily policing duties. Our surveys and interviews found that overall, Pittsburgh officers strongly believe BWCs can reduce citizen complaints and maintain police-community relations, but support for deploying BWCs throughout the city is low (31%). However, that support significantly increases among officers with hands-on BWC experience (57%). A comparison to previous police surveys found further evidence that BWC experience improves officer perception of the technology. In contrast, Pittsburgh officers who oppose city-wide adoption were concerned BWCs would erode trust between officers and their superiors, implying that police departments that can protect these internal police relationships might experience less resistance from police officers. These and other results suggest that changes in BWC technology, police policy and procedure, rollout, and police training could lead to better BWC programs.
Police Work and New 'Security Devices": A Tale From the Beat
Mobile technologies have brought about major changes in police equipment and police work. If a utopian narrative remains strongly linked to the adoption of new technologies, often formulated as ‘magic bullets’ to real occupational problems, there are important tensions between their ‘imagined’ outcomes and the (unexpected) effects that accompany their daily ‘practical’ use by police officers. This article offers an analysis of police officers’ perceptions and interactions with security devices. In so doing, it develops a conceptual typology of strategies for coping with new technology inspired by Le Bourhis and Lascoumes: challenging, neutralizing and diverting. To that purpose, we adopt an ethnographic approach that focuses on the discourses, practices and actions of police officers in relation to three security devices: the mobile digital terminal, the mobile phone and the body camera. Based on a case study of a North American municipal police department, the article addresses how these technological devices are perceived and experienced by police officers on the beat.
Where Is the Goal Line? A Critical Look at Police Body‐Worn Camera Programs
Criminology & Public Policy, 2018
W hen police were provided with dash-cam or in-car recorders, it was argued they would be able to confirm the stories officers were telling and assist with prosecutions, while capturing improper police actions. Soon after their implementation, the in-car videos along with closed-circuit television (CCTV) were being used to justify police activities, played in court to help convict criminals, and reviewed for police misconduct. These videos have been lauded for confirming proper behavior in driving-under-the-influence (DUI) enforcement, sustaining comments and actions officers attributed to subjects, and showing the dangers of high-speed pursuits, among other activities. When the first generation of cameras was rolled out in the 1980s, there was no agreed-upon goal for them, some video was grainy, cameras were not always pointing in the right direction, they were not always working, they were not always turned on, and tapes were sometimes full or damaged (International Association of Chiefs of Police [IACP], 2004). Watching the videos was, for the most part, a boring exercise. The video evidence, however, was helpful in understanding the daily routines of officers (Meyer, 2014) and helped prosecute drunk drivers. Mothers Against Drunk Driving helped convince government and private funders to purchase the equipment for law enforcement. Quickly, fears and apprehension transformed into satisfaction and support, as the videos more often than not exonerated officer behavior and in many cases reduced citizen complaints. 1 In the late 1990s, there was an emphasis for agencies using the technology to develop a thorough