I’ve just released a short film (free) about the UK’s surveillance state and the live facial recognition deployments by UK police forces, where thousands have been scanned without consent, and many have been racially profiled.
During 2019 and 2020 I witnessed several live facial recognition deployments by the Metropolitan police and South Wales police. And I was able to capture first hand the behind the scenes of what the police do during these deployments.
The first thing I noticed in these deployment is how the UK police forces target certain people—especially racial minorities. Which is extremely worrying. But after you deeply analyze their modus operandi, the threat of their surveillance goes much further than the already grave threat of racial profiling: it is the beginning of a state of surveillance and a roll-back on human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In this short film I show you the behind the scenes of what the police do during live facial recognition operational deployments. And I give you a sneak a peak of where the UK is heading with its surveillance state. And maybe this video will serve as an example of other countries that are also walking down this road.
You can watch the full short film here: bmstudios.org/uk-surveillance-state/
Not wishing to downplay the subject, but the surveillance state is not a recent development in the UK. Tony Geraghty [1] was writing about this over 20 years ago. Back then, it was about how techniques developed for use in Northern Ireland during the troubles were beginning to be applied across the UK as a whole. This involved things such as the mass-interception of communications, or automatic scanning of car number plates on a massive scale with the aim of tracking all car journeys within the country. Recent developments are unfortunately just a continuation of a trend started a long time ago.
You're absolutely right. The thing is that they have access to way better technology--and they're not shy about it. I'm not just talking about their live facial recognition. But also their access to Cleaview AI's database (https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/28/met-police-used-controversial...)
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 17.6 ms ] threadDuring 2019 and 2020 I witnessed several live facial recognition deployments by the Metropolitan police and South Wales police. And I was able to capture first hand the behind the scenes of what the police do during these deployments.
The first thing I noticed in these deployment is how the UK police forces target certain people—especially racial minorities. Which is extremely worrying. But after you deeply analyze their modus operandi, the threat of their surveillance goes much further than the already grave threat of racial profiling: it is the beginning of a state of surveillance and a roll-back on human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In this short film I show you the behind the scenes of what the police do during live facial recognition operational deployments. And I give you a sneak a peak of where the UK is heading with its surveillance state. And maybe this video will serve as an example of other countries that are also walking down this road.
You can watch the full short film here: bmstudios.org/uk-surveillance-state/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Geraghty
Or just consider what Cressida Dick said (Metropolitan Commissioner) regarding how they should use data: "we absolutely must be in the exploitation business”(https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/2020/02/the-guardian-big-brot...)