Judgment Approved by the court for handing down
R (Bridges) v CCSWP and SSHD
32.
The watchlist images are “enrolled” into the AFR system, meaning that a
biometric template is taken from the images which will then be used for the
purposes of undertaking algorithmic comparisons with the facial biometrics of
members of the public captured on camera.
33.
If during a deployment of AFR Locate the software identifies a possible match
between a face captured on the CCTV and an image on the watchlist, the two
images are reviewed by an AFR operator (“the system operator”, who is a
police officer) to establish whether he believes that a match has in fact been
made. In our view, the fact that human eye is used to ensure that an
intervention is justified, is an important safeguard. If, upon reviewing the
images of the person on the watchlist and the person whose image has been
captured by CCTV, the system operator does not consider that they are the
subject of interest, then no further action is taken. If, however, he believes
there is a match, he may inform other officers stationed nearby who will
intervene (“intervention officers”). SWP says that those officers will
themselves make their own assessment and will only intervene if satisfied that
the person may be the subject of interest. SWP have developed a ‘traffic light’
system with colours (red, amber and green) to delineate the urgency and type
of intervention required. ‘Red’ indicates the need for an immediate response
because, e.g., of a counter-terrorist threat, ‘amber’ indicates the need for an
arrest intervention, and ‘green’ indicates the need for an identification for
intelligence development purposes only. If the person identified is on a ‘red’
watchlist, the system operator may be given instructions to contact the person
responsible for the decision that that person should be placed on the watchlist
and to obtain instructions as to what action should be taken.
34.
Deployment locations are generally selected as being places at which SWP can
maximise the number of faces scanned in a given deployment. In addition,
deployment locations may be selected on the basis that they are locations or
events associated with attracting disorder or criminal activity. When AFR is
deployed, the SWP mounts CCTV cameras on stationary, or mobile police
vehicles, or on poles or posts, so to capture images of the face of anyone who
passes within range of the camera.
35.
SWP has consulted with the Surveillance Camera Commissioner on the use of
CCTV cameras. The CCTV camera records footage for the duration of any
AFR Locate deployment. AFR Locate is capable of scanning 50 faces per
second (albeit that does not necessarily mean 50 different people). Beyond
these technical limitations, there is no limit on the number of persons who may
have their facial biometrics captured during any given deployment. It is SWP’s
intention during each deployment to allow AFR Locate to enrol and therefore
process as many individuals as possible7.
36.
Whilst SWP does not routinely record the total number of people whose facial
biometrics are captured and processed as part of each deployment of AFR, it is
clear that these numbers are very large (e.g. approximately 21,500 faces were
scanned at a Rugby Union international in November 2017, and approximately
44,500 during the course of a weekend event in Swansea). Over the 50
7
SWP Data Protection Impact Assessment (p.19)