Oireachtas committee wants to scrutinise use of facial recognition technology by gardaí

Plans to fast-track the introduction of laws allowing the use of facial recognition technology by the Garda are facing stiff resistance from the Oireachtas justice committee.

Minister for Justice Simon Harris has indicated that he wants to pave the way for the introduction of the technology by amending a Bill currently working its way through the Oireachtas, which allows for the use of body cameras by the force.

However, the chair of the justice committee, Fianna Fáil TD James Lawless, believes the plan is flawed and wants his committee to be given the chance to assess the issue.

He told The Irish Times that stand-alone legislation should be introduced if the Minister intends to proceed with his plan to enable the use of FRT, which has already faced stiff opposition at Cabinet level.

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“I understand that it’s under consideration that the Minister may introduce amendments as part of this Bill, to add FRT,” Mr Lawless said. “A FRT package should be in its own Bill, go through pre-legislative scrutiny so we can bring in the experts, see what they have to say, and make recommendations – rather than shoehorning it into another piece of legislation because it has some commonality.”

The Kildare North TD warned that the passive use of the technology risked a “huge encroachment on your privacy and data-protection rights, and at very least that should be subject to analysis before it’s rolled out,” he said, calling for a “methodical and considered approach”.

Patrick Costello, the Green Party TD for Dublin South Central, warned that the use of FRT gave rise to concerns over a “horrendous dystopia of mass surveillance that we should all be resisting with every fibre”.

He warned that the technology had been banned in other jurisdictions, and was susceptible to inbuilt biases, including against people of colour. He said: “If it’s coming at all, it should be coming as its own Bill so it can be properly scrutinised.”

A spokesman for Mr Harris said the use of the technology “will greatly assist An Garda Síochána as an evidence management tool”, adding that it “has potentially transformational benefits in regard to certain specific areas of police work, in particular retrospectively examining CCTV which is already in the possession of An Garda Síochána”.

The spokesman said the “accurate and efficient” identification of suspects and the elimination of individuals from inquiries were key for the force in meeting is statutory obligations. “The ability to automate searches on legally-held images and footage would allow the organisation to operate more efficiently and effectively.”

The current process of manual searching potentially involves a team of Gardaí manually going through CCTV footage for months, Mr Harris’s spokesman said, to find a few short clips for an investigation – arguing that it is “well outdated and extremely inefficient”.

The technology would also assist the Garda in finding the perpetrators of child sexual abuse and to identify suspects in serious crimes. “It would be particularly necessary where time is of the essence and for the preservation of life,” he said.

“The Minister is continuing to engage with his Government colleague on this issue.”

The introduction of the technology has faced resistance at Cabinet level, where Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Green Party Ministers reportedly raised concerns last year when then Minister for Justice Helen McEntee brought forward plans to draft proposals to allow the Garda use the software.