Should cops spy on kids? The revelation that police are including surveillance of young people in their expanding use of live facial recognition (LFR) systems to detect criminals and deter crime has upset the civil liberties lobby and a few MPs. Should we take these concerns seriously?

LFR was introduced in south Wales in 2016 and was rolled out nationwide in England and Wales from 2020 onwards. The operating principles have evolved during pilot schemes but are now built around cameras in liveried vans passively scanning crowds and comparing the faces of citizens against a database. Artificial intelligence scans the biometric details, alerting the operator to ‘hits’ against a curated ‘watchlist’. That database includes people wanted by the police, people subject to bail or probation conditions and those at risk of harm. It is likely that children comprise a significant number of the latter category. In 2023/24, 65 per cent of all missing persons incidents were children under 18. Many of these children abscond from care homes and are at acute risk from sexual and criminal exploitation.

Prevention is best but control is important too

Most of the arguments against the deployment of LFR are rooted in protecting the rights of the citizen of any age against unwarranted intrusion by the state.........

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