WEST Midlands Police has begun exploring the use of facial recognition technology, it has been confirmed.

Speaking during a Strategic Policing and Crime Board (SPCB), Chief Constable Dave Thompson revealed the force had trialled the technology in a ‘reactive’ way, using it to go over old footage while investigating a case.

But he admitted the force was still quite ‘nervous’ about the ethical implications surrounding the use of the technology, adding that it would still be some time before it was rolled out proactively.

The use of facial recognition technology has been a hot topic in recent months, with one man taking South Wales Police to court earlier this year over their use of it in Cardiff.

The man claimed use of the technology was a breach of his right to privacy, but in September the high court ruled that the force had been justified in their use of it.

Responding to a question from a board member at the SPCB, Chief Constable Thompson admitted the force were eager to see how the use of facial recognition technology went in other areas of the country before rolling it out in the West Midlands.

He added a strong ethical framework would need to be established before the technology was used on a wider scale.

“I think one of the challenges the force faces, particularly as new technology comes online, we want to be in a position where there is a good strong ethical framework for using these technologies that inspire confidence off the public,” he said.

“So we have been a bit nervous around facial recognition and entering this space as a force. We’ve probably been keener for other areas to take the lead when it comes to facial recognition, just simply because there’s only so much we can do at any one time.

“So we have not deployed any proactive, live time facial recognition work in the force. And what I mean by that is that the controversy around some of these sites is that the location, often fixed locations, will have a camera system that is scanning crowds and groups, and maybe using the data matching software to identify somebody that’s subject to intervention.

“Some of those are deployed in other parts of the country – it’s relatively new technology, so we’ve not used that technology in the force because at this stage we kind of wanted to see where others got to, and that obviously involves the litigation in South Wales.

“Where we have used elements is we did a small pilot around it, reactively, to scan and find features from back records of CCTV. So you can imagine the scenario, the force has a large investigation, we may be trying to track a suspect across a high proportion of imagery that we’ve gathered, or a vehicle. And can we use a machine or scanner software to begin to identify that person. I think that’s ethically less challenging because we know we’re looking for a defined person, it’s already somebody who will probably be suspect to a criminal investigation.”