Investigation by European Commission into age verification practices on prominent adult content websites
UK Police Request Increased Funding for Facial Recognition Technology Expansion
The United Kingdom is planning to substantially boost funding for its police forces to extend the utilisation of facial recognition technology. This funding, expected to amount to around £220 million annually over the next three years, is aimed at supporting the technology's deployment and scaling across England and Wales' police forces [4, 2].
The funding push aims to enhance the capabilities of police forces by deploying live facial recognition units, which have shown promising results. According to statistics from 2024, an average of 60 arrests per month were made across three forces using the technology, with a notable proportion involving registered sex offenders. This helps shorten investigation times and expedite justice [2].
Currently, the Metropolitan Police and other forces have processed almost 5 million faces in the last year, with live facial recognition cameras becoming more prevalent [5]. The government has invested approximately £10 million in live facial recognition vehicles for future deployment, and ongoing trials, such as the summer trials beginning in Croydon, south London, indicate the technology is moving towards permanent integration in policing [1].
However, the rapid expansion and increased funding have provoked concerns from experts and civil rights groups. They argue that the UK's regulatory framework governing the use of facial recognition is incoherent and insufficient, failing to provide clear guidance or address critical issues of legality, privacy, and ethical use [1, 3]. The absence of a comprehensive governance framework jeopardises the legitimacy of police deployments and public trust, particularly as new risky applications such as emotion recognition are introduced [1]. Theconcern is for the government to implement new risk-based legislation ensuring transparency, fairness, and legal clarity around acceptable uses of this technology [1, 2].
In summary, while the UK is pouring resources into expanding facial recognition technology within police forces—promising enhanced crime prevention efficiency and police productivity—this expansion outpaces regulatory safeguards, raising substantial concerns about privacy, ethics, and public trust in biometric surveillance [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
- The push for increased funding in facial recognition technology by UK police forces is influenced by cybersecurity concerns, given the sensitive personal data involved and the potential risks of data breaches.
- Amidst the expansion of facial recognition technology in UK politics and general-news, debates about the ethical use of this technology, particularly in terms of privacy and cybersecurity, are gaining significant attention.
