This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

One of the most senior policing figures in Wales has warned that the use of facial recognition technology at the country’s biggest football derby this weekend could create miscarriages of justice.

Arfon Jones, a veteran Welsh police officer and the North Wales police and crime commissioner, has expressed grave concern about the deployment of the surveillance technology at Sunday’s clash between Cardiff City and Swansea City.

Civil liberties and fan groups have also criticised South Wales police’s decision to train cameras on supporters and employ facial recognition on them at the Cardiff City stadium.

Jones, who served as a police officer in North Wales for 30 years, described the plans as “disproportionate”.

He also accused the South Wales force of being engaged in a “fishing expedition where, once again, football fans are being unfairly targeted in a way that supporters of other sports are not”.

He added: “It’s a step too far and creates the potential for miscarriages of justice.

“I’m sure there are people from North Wales who will be going down to the game and risk having pictures taken of them without their consent. I have a responsibility to represent them and to oppose fishing expeditions that invade their privacy.”

He said there was also a danger that the technology could be biased and discriminatory.

“When facial recognition technology was first used in the Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium there were several hundred, if not thousands, of false positives, so there have to be concerns about its accuracy.

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“There have also been concerns about its effectiveness, especially so with members of the BAME community, and I don’t know if these have been satisfactorily addressed.

“I believe it is invasive, disproportionate and has the ability to reduce confidence in our policing.”

South Wales police’s assistant chief constable, Andy Valentine, defended the use of the technology, pointing out that it was only the third time it had been deployed in more than two-and-a-half years.

He said: “We are deploying automated facial recognition to prevent offences by individuals who are wanted for questioning for football-related offences or have been convicted of football-related criminality and are now subject to football banning orders that preclude them from attending.

“Football banning orders are issued by the court to those who have misbehaved at a previous football game and hence this provides us with a clear rationale in our strategy to prevent any crime and disorder.”

He said the data of all those captured by the technology on Sunday who were not on the “watch list” would be instantaneously deleted.

Valentine stressed that under a high court ruling in September 2019, the use of facial recognition technology was legally justified and proportionate.

But the Football Supporters’ Association Wales said the use of facial recognition treated fans like criminals.

Vince Alm, the association’s spokesman, said: “It’s unbelievable that police are targeting us with facial recognition surveillance again. Fans coming out for a local football match, including hundreds of families and children, will be treated like they’re in a police line-up and have their faces scanned without their consent.”

The civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch has called for an immediate ban on facial recognition surveillance in the UK.

Silkie Carlo, the organisation’s director, said: “Police repeatedly targeting football fans with this new and dangerous mass-surveillance tool treats them like suspects, erodes public freedoms and wastes public money. South Wales police are acting like Big Brother and seem tone-deaf to public concerns.

“We will keep fighting facial recognition surveillance until its use is ended. It’s one of the most extreme surveillance technologies in the world and has no place in Britain. Government should urgently issue a ban on police and private companies monitoring the public with this authoritarian surveillance technology.”

Two separate human rights challenges are currently under way against the deployment of facial recognition cameras.

One legal case is being taken by Big Brother Watch and the Green party member of the House of Lords, Jenny Jones. Their action is against the Metropolitan police, which has put the use of facial recognition tools on hold.

A second challenge is being brought by Dr Ed Bridges against South Wales police.