Closed petition Increase regulation of the use of facial recognition technology by police

Closed on 6 November 2019

Currently, there is only minimal legislation regulating the use of automated facial recognition (AFR) technology by police. Further legislation must be introduced that protects the rights of innocent people and ensures any AFR technology that is introduced does not operate with racial bias.

Further regulation should include laws preventing the state - through AFR - from tracking the activities of innocent people without consent. Also, AFR technology currently exhibits racial bias, meaning it is more likely to "flag" innocent people from racial minorities as suspected criminals. In this way, AFR will only further racial bias in policing, exacerbating distrust in the police among the public. Thus, laws must be passed that ensure AFR is not introduced while such biases are present.