Facial Recognition Technology in Policing and Security—Case Studies in Regulation

Technology-enabled state surveillance has evolved rapidly to allow real-time remote tracking and surveillance of people and vehicles and the aggregation of vast amounts of data on people and their movements, networks, and relationships. Facial recognition technology (FRT) comprises a suite of technologies that allows verification, identification, and categorisation by analysing a person’s facial image. Such technologies impact fundamental rights, such as privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly, but can also be used to detect, investigate, and deter serious crime and harm and to counter threats to security, thus promoting collective interests in security and public safety. These impacts have been considered in terms of scholarship and advocacy, but the shape of principled regulation is less well traversed. This contribution examines three contemporary case studies of the regulation of FRT in policing and security to analyse the challenges in regulating this technology.