Images of arrested people who were innocent of any crimes are still being stored in a police database that may be used for facial recognition purposes, an official report has warned.
In 2012, the high court ruled that keeping the images of people who faced no action or who were charged and then acquitted was unlawful.
Despite the ruling, custody images of innocent people are still on the Police national database, which is available to all UK police forces and selected law enforcement agencies. The images can be used for facial recognition checks of potential suspects.
The annual report of the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner stated: “Forces continue to retain and use images of people who, while having been arrested, have never subsequently been charged or summonsed.
“The use of these custody images of unconvicted individuals may include for facial recognition purposes.” The report said work was “under way” to ensure the retention of images was proportionate and lawful.
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “It is deeply concerning that people who have never been charged with a crime are finding their sensitive biometric data not only unlawfully retained by police, but used to fuel the unregulated and deeply invasive use of facial recognition technology as well.
“The police need to answer as to why they are still holding this highly personal data more than 10 years after the courts said this is against the law. This is even more concerning as police forge ahead with dangerous facial recognition technology that makes our photos as sensitive as our fingerprints.” He called on parliament to “urgently act to regulate the use of this technology”.
It was reported in 2012 that police may be forced to destroy custody images of innocent people after the high court ruled the Metropolitan police had breached the human rights of a woman and a boy they arrested by keeping their custody pictures.
Forces failed to comply with the ruling, and the government published a review in 2017 that reported there were more than 19 million custody images on the database, with more than 16 million in a searchable “facial recognition gallery”.
The review concluded those who had not been convicted should be able to apply to have the images deleted, but campaigners want stricter rules to prevent the images being used in a facial recognition database.
In Scotland, custody images are only uploaded to the Police National Database if a person has been charged with an offence. Police Scotland also reviews custody images to delete those not linked to a live prosecution or conviction.
The previous government urged police forces to make wider use of facial recognition searches against the police national database. Big Brother Watch, a campaign group, has described the deployment of the technology as “dangerously authoritarian surveillance”.
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Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, said: “Police and the Home Office have no idea how many people’s photographs they hold unlawfully, and more than a decade after the high court demanded these be deleted, look to have made next to no effort to comply with the law.
“Removing these images is not impossible, as Police Scotland have shown, and other forces must do the same rather than remain complicit in a decade-old breach of privacy rights on an industrial scale. Facial recognition searches must not be conducted against images that are held outside of the law.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Rules for the retention of custody images are set by the police. We continually work with police and key stakeholders to ensure best practice is maintained.
“If individuals who have not been convicted want their images deleted they can request this.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has been contacted for comment.
