Garda body cams to include facial recognition but real-time use prohibited

Body-worn cameras to be purchased for the gardaí will include facial-recognition software, but the use of the controversial technology will not be permitted in real time under plans to be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday.

A Fine Gael proposal to amend the planned legislation providing for body cams to include facial-recognition technology (FRT) is being abandoned following strong opposition from their Green Party coalition partners.

The Greens raised civil liberties concerns and called for FRT – which raises complex privacy and data protection issues – to be dealt with in a separate law.

The Government is now expected to seek to progress the body-cam legislation in the coming weeks while drafting a new law to cover the use of FRT.

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Under the plans Garda members would be able to use their body cams once the existing legislation, the proposed Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022, is enacted.

However, they will not be allowed to use the FRT software included with the body cams until separate legislation covering the area is passed.

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The first draft – or “heads” – of that law, the Garda Síochána (Digital Management and Facial Recognition Technology) Bill 2023, is not expected to go to Cabinet until the autumn.

There is no timeline as yet as to when it will be enacted.

The Irish Times understands that Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will on Tuesday tell colleagues that An Garda Síochána is to immediately begin the process of procuring body cams for frontline gardaí.

She is also to seek approval to draft new legislation on a priority basis to cover the use of FRT.

The goal of the legislation will be to provide for the safe and ethical use of FRT to help gardaí investigate serious crimes which are subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment including homicide, rape and aggravated sexual assault, child sexual abuse and child abduction.

The bodycams to be procured for gardaí will include FRT software to ensure they can also be fully used in line with the new FRT law that is to be drafted.

Under plans for the new legislation, FRT would only be used retrospectively to search images – which gardaí already do manually.

FRT is viewed as a way of speeding up investigations, as manually sifting through thousands of hours of CCTV currently can take many months.

Its use is deemed to be particularly crucial when time is of the essence in a criminal investigation, and where there is an ongoing threat to life or of serious harm to an individual.

The Bill to allow for FRT is to include a number of safeguards such as banning mass surveillance and profiling.

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The Irish Times reported last year on how an earlier version of the proposals had included the use of FRT to allow gardaí to identify and track people in real time using CCTV cameras.

Under the current plans the use of live FRT will not be permitted.

If passed, the new Bill will see trained gardaí make the final decisions on the use of evidence identified using FRT and there would be no automated decision-making.

The Bill will undergo pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas justice committee, which will be able to invite experts in this complex area to discuss its provisions and allow for discussion on concerns about FRT and the safeguards that can address them.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) welcomed the news that the plan to include FRT in the body-cam legislation had been dropped.

However, it still has concerns about the Recording Devices Bill which it says provides for expanded CCTV use that will “seriously impact our privacy and data protection rights”.

ICCL said on Twitter: “It is essential that the Bill is properly discussed, rather than being rushed through ahead of the Oireachtas summer break.”