Civil Rights Campaigners Slam Facewatch

The International Working Group on Video Surveillance, an alliance of people and NGOs who are concerned at the increasing use of video surveillance around the world, has launched a scathing attack on the CCTV images sharing service Facewatch.

The IWGVS says that Facewatch is a “wanted poster social network, that trivialises crime fighting and asks the user to spend no more time identifying a person accused of a crime than “liking” a news story about their favourite celebrity.”

They express fears that the Facewatch system will lead to cases of mistaken identity, defamation of character, and a threat to concepts of due process and innocence until proven guilty. The app, they say, invites users to play “spot the criminal” and makes surveillance images into little more than entertainment.

The Facewatch system has been widely praised by businesses and police forces around the world for the way in which it enables the quick processing of low-level crimes. Registered businesses are able to file an incident of criminal damage or low-level theft through the service, generating a crime reference number for insurance purposes, and submitting any CCTV images of a suspected criminal.

Among its many supporters is Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, who described Facewatch as “excellent technology for fighting crime, reducing bureaucracy and saving time.”

A publicly-available app then allows people to identify images of suspected offenders that police have decided they would like to speak to and to confidentially submit any details about that individual directly to the police force.

The identification app currently only serves people who live in London, Surrey, Northants, and the West Midlands, but the Facewatch service is currently being rolled out in the US and Australia following its widespread success in the UK.

Video explaining how Facewatch works and its benefits.

The IWGVS statement was released on Saturday, June 8, to coincide with 1984 Action Day, the anniversary of the 1949 publication of Orwell’s novel widely held up as a chillingly accurate description of the future police state. The statement continued:

Facewatch forms part of a ubiquitous surveillance culture that spreads fear and distrust and is undermining an already weakened sense of community.

A healthy society requires people to work together, to stand up for their beliefs and the beliefs of others, and to interact freely without being under constant surveillance.

People must be given the freedom to understand that it is only through the interactions between human beings that society’s problems, such as crime, can be alleviated. Undermining these interactions, distancing people from communities, asking people to place blind trust in surveillance technology, wanted posters and pseudo-crime fighting Apps is rotting our communities.

The IWGVS asks that consideration be given to the wider impact of a service like Facewatch in society, rather than just whether or not it is legally compliant within data protection and other rules. It calls for Facewatch to “cease and desist.”

But where the IWGVS says that Facewatch compromises due process, another civil liberties campaign group says quite the opposite. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, is quoted among Facewatch’s supporters as saying:

Where cameras are installed by private organisations and companies, we believe it is essential to protect privacy that the minimum amount of footage is retained. Facewatch supports this objective without compromising due process, and the police role in the scheme is both an important safeguard on incorrect identifications and an excellent way to reduce the risk of footage being lost. It also makes it much easier for repeat offenders to be identified.

Facewatch was founded in 2010 by Simon Gordon, owner of London-based Gordon’s Wine Bars, in order to try and catch and deter thieves in his bars. Since then it has received widespread acclaim and been featured in various national media outlets including the BBC’s Crimewatch program.