On Wednesday, the Metropolitan police announced that it will be using live facial recognition (LFR) technology as part of its coronation security operation. With hundreds of thousands of people expected to line the streets around Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, it’ll be the biggest LFR operation in British history.

In theory, LFR technology works by scanning faces and matching them against databases and watch lists, allowing police to identify and arrest suspected criminals and terrorists. But in reality, LFR has been proven to be deeply, deeply flawed.

For starters, it’s racist: research published in 2018 found that facial recognition systems from major tech companies – Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon – had an error rate of 0.8 per cent for identifying light-skinned men, which shot up to 34.7 per cent for dark-skinned women. Other research conducted in 2019 found that people from ethnic minorities were 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white individuals.

The technology used by the Met seems to be particularly bad. “The Met’s own figures show that 86 per cent of facial recognition flags are inaccurate, meaning the risk of innocent people being misidentified is vast,” Madeleine Stone, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch, tells Dazed.

LFR has also been found to be unethical and unlawful, with University of Cambridge researchers concluding in 2022 that the technology should be banned from use in streets, airports and any public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws. Above all, LFR is an Orwellian invasion of privacy with huge potential for abuse – and knowing the Met, this potential will not remain untapped. “Police also monitor people in the vicinity of these face recognition surveillance deployments, labelling almost any kind of behaviour ‘suspicious’ and using it as justification to question, stop and search people,” explains Griff Ferris, senior legal and policy officer at Fair Trials.

With all this in mind, the news that the Met will go ahead and use LFR on an event as big as the coronation is extremely disturbing. “The use of this surveillance technology is racist, authoritarian, and incredibly oppressive. Its normalisation at public events and demonstrations will give police and the government a frightening amount of power,” Ferris says. Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns manager at Liberty, agrees and adds that “the policing of the coronation is shaping up to be a human rights nightmare”.

‘Facial recognition is a dystopian tool that violates our rights and threatens our liberty. We all have the right to go about our lives without being surveilled and monitored’ – Emmanuelle Andrews

“Facial recognition is a dystopian tool that violates our rights and threatens our liberty,” she continues. “We all have the right to go about our lives without being surveilled and monitored – but this weekend, everyone who attends the King’s coronation is at risk of having their face scanned by this oppressive technology.” Stone agrees. "Facial recognition is a dystopian, dangerous mass surveillance technology that has no place in British policing, let alone at the Coronation,” she says. “Hundreds of thousands of innocent people who will be celebrating or protesting will now be subjected to a biometric police ID check.”

This disturbing news about the use of LFR is compounded by the fact that intimidatory letters were sent to protestors earlier this week after the anti-protest Public Order Act was rushed into law – legislation which was described as “illiberal and headline-grabbing” by Shami Chakrabarti, the former shadow attorney general. “Protest is not a gift from the state, it’s our fundamental right and should be respected as such,” Andrews says. “The policing of the coronation is going to discourage lots of people from feeling able to stand up for what they believe in. It’s setting a really dangerous precedent for us as a supposedly democratic nation.”

Stone adds that while the Met has claimed they will not be using the technology to “target” protesters, the use of LFR will have a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression. “In the past, this technology has been used to monitor peaceful demonstrations and to target activists not wanted for any criminal activity,” she says. “Everyone must be free to protest without being scanned by authoritarian surveillance technology.”

How can protestors stay safe in light of the rise of police surveillance and anti-protest laws? Ferris recommends using an encrypted messaging app like Signal, with disappearing messages, when planning or discussing protest-related action. When it comes to the protest itself, he says it’s “worth taking steps to preserve your anonymity”. He suggests wearing face masks, hats and nondescript clothing, and not carrying ID or other identifying details (such as bank cards or travel cards) with you. You should also turn off phone lock-screen notifications, and avoid using face or fingerprint identification to unlock your phone, as police can (and do) force people to unlock their phones using this. He also adds that you should try to avoid police vans with cameras on them, and be aware that police body cameras are often recording at protests.

“One of the most important things to do is to be aware of your rights, including what you should do if you are arrested at a protest,” Andrews adds. Information on your rights, if arrested, is available on the Liberty website. Ferris also recommends taking ‘bust cards’ with you when protesting, which contain basic legal information on your rights and police powers during protests. “If you think you’re at risk of arrest, make sure you have a protest solicitor’s number on you. Check Black Protest Legal Support or Green and Black Cross websites or social media for lawyers’ details and other updates on protests,” he adds.

The slew of anti-protest legislation and measures that we’ve seen in recent years is chilling, but we shouldn’t let that deter us from exercising our right to protest – an important part of living in a healthy democracy. As Ferris says: “Don’t let anything put you off protesting if you want to – just be aware of the risks.”

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