Photographs of arrested people who were innocent of any crimes were still stored in the capital’s database, which can be used for facial recognition purposes, the official report warned.
In 2012, the chief of the court ruled that the images of people who faced no action in custody or accused and acquitted were illegal.
Despite the ruling, the images of the innocent are still in custody Police a national database that is available to all UK police forces and selected law enforcement agencies. Images can be used for facial recognition to screen out potential suspects.
The commissioner’s annual biometrics and surveillance camera report stated: “The police are retaining and using images of people who, once arrested, have never been charged or prosecuted.
“The use of these surveillance cameras may include images of unsuspecting individuals for facial recognition purposes.” The report said the work was “under way” so that the retention of the images was proportionate and permissible.
Charlie Whelton, adviser and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “Most of those who have never been charged with a crime are finding sensitive biometric data not only being unlawfully retained by the police, but fueling unregulated and deeply invasive use. facial recognition technology.
“The police have to answer why they are still holding this amount of personal data against the law more than 10 years after the courts said. This is even more of a capital issue with the dangerous facial recognition technology ahead that makes our images like our fingerprints.” He called on the parliament to “act strongly to control the use of this technology”.
it was reported in 2012 that the police were forced to destroy the images of the innocent after the High Court ruled that the Metropolitan police had breached the human rights of the woman and the child arrested by the images of their custody.
The troops appeared to the commander and the command was issued a review in 2017 who reported that there are more than 19 million images of custody in the database, with more than 16 million in the “face recognition gallery”.
The review concluded that those who had not been convicted could use deleted photos, but campaigners want stricter rules to prevent photos from being used in facial recognition databases.
In Scotland, surveillance images are only added to the National Police Database if a person has been charged with an offence. Police Scotland also reviews surveillance images to delete those that are not relevant to the prosecution or conviction.
The previous government urged police forces to use a wider range of facial recognition searches against the national police database. Big Brother Watch, a campaign group, has described the deployment of the technology as “dangerous surveillance authority”.
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Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, said: “The police and the Home Office have no idea how many photographs they are holding illegally, and more than a decade after the High Court demanded they delete them, you can see that they have done so and then no one is trying to comply with the law.
“It is impossible to remove these images, as Police Scotland has shown, and other forces must do the same as in the decade-long breach of privacy rights on an industrial scale. Facial recognition searches against images that are held outside the law are not to be made.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Detention orders have been put in place by the police. Always work with the police and key stakeholders to ensure best practice is maintained.
“If individuals who have not been convicted have their images deleted, they can ask for it.”
The National Police Council has been contacted for comment.