Advanced surveillance

Is a surveillance state the answer to terror?

On the 29th of November 2019, the whole of the UK was shocked and saddened by a brutal act of terror in the capital, reminding us all that the threat of terrorism is not an exaggeration of the media, but a very real danger.

The atrocious acts of murderer Usman Khan, a known terror threat who was jailed for his part in an al-Qaida-inspired plot and released from prison early, has raised urgent questions concerning public safety and security and the adequacy of the supervision of offenders released on licence.

Adrian Timberlake, chief technical director of Seven Technologies Group and specialist in developing technology that uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition for police and counter-terror operations, examines the potential of new technologies as an ally in combatting terror and ethical considerations in increasing security in public places. Advanced surveillance and security solutions that use new technologies, including automated facial recognition (AFR), artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent algorithms, have received public scrutiny and have often been criticised as a step closer to a ‘surveillance state’.

AFR, in particular, has been under the microscope after the unpopular trials on London’s King’s Cross estate.1

However, the recent tragic event in London and the uncertainty it has raised around public safety, especially after it was revealed that 74 people convicted of terrorism offences had been released early2, as Khan was, has raised an extremely pressing question.

Should these people be more closely watched?

Usman Khan was given an indeterminate public protection sentence (IPP) in 2012, which ends only when the Parole Board is satisfied that an offender no longer poses a risk to the public, after being convicted of plotting acts of terror which included a plans to “bomb high-profile locations and build a terrorist training camp in Pakistan”3, and was told that he would serve at least eight years in prison.

However, this sentence was

overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2013. At the time, many politicians and penal reform campaigners were of the opinion that such sentences could result “in prisoners unjustly spending too long in jail” and IPPs were being abolished.3

Khan was subsequently handed a 16-year determinate sentence, which he had served less than seven years of when he was freed on licence in December 2018. While he was ordered to wear a tag as a condition of his release, the unaccompanied and unsupervised Khan soon murdered two innocent people and wounded three others before he was fatally shot by armed police.4 The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has speculated on whether the Ministry of Justice or the probation service had the resources to properly supervise people whom, like Usman Khan, had been released on licence.3 It seems the Mayor’s suspicion was warranted. Following an urgent review of terrorists released from prison, launched by the Ministry of Justice, a man was arrested by West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit on “suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts after a search of his home”. The report suggests that the suspect in this case was a convicted terrorism offender who had been released under licence conditions.5

The evidence points to these people being, as the Mayor of London suggests, “clearly dangerous.”3 Who will watch them? Budget cuts to police forces across England and Wales, and a reduction of police officers, means that local forces may be too stretched to cope with additional long-term surveillance assignments within the communities they police. The National Audit Office (NAO) stated that the real-terms reduction in total funding to police and crime commissioners, between the financial year of 2010-11 to 2018-19 was 19%6, while the number of police officers in English and Welsh forces fell by 14% between September 2010 and September 20177, leading to increasing workloads and pressure on officers.

If officers are tasked with the surveillance of early-released offenders, then other areas of police work, such as responding to emergency calls, may suffer as a result. It was reported early in 2019 that response times for emergency calls to the police have doubled8 in some forces, with the admission that delays in response times reduce the chance of solving crimes such as burglaries and robberies and give criminals more time to escape. However, we urgently need a solution to monitor people convicted of terrorism offences and released on licence to ensure that this tragedy won’t happen again. Sets of digital eyes that scan for known offenders on a police ‘watch list’ 24-hours a day, and keep authorities informed with the offender’s location, may be the spies Britain needs to keep communities safe. These ‘digital eyes’ are, of course, surveillance cameras that use targeted facial recognition.

How can facial recognition keep communities safe?

Targeted facial recognition was designed with declining numbers of police officers, and the rising rate of crime, in mind.

The technology works by scanning faces in a crowd to find a match to a face in its ‘watch list’ database, with the information that makes up its database obtained from existing police records. This means that while the camera ‘sees’ lawabiding members of the public, it only stores images and raises the alert to police when it sees a ‘target’, which would be anyone on the ‘watch list’. Any person who has been convicted of plotting terror should certainly be on this list.

Wider positive impact of using facial recognition technology within communities could include raising alerts to police when known sex offenders come near a school and pin-pointing the location of people reported missing. Additionally, facial recognition technology may reduce the likelihood of criminals who

to avoid being caught on CCTV, escaping justice, as facial recognition technology doesn’t only rely on images of faces but builds a profile of a face based on measurements of its features and bone structure.9 Surveillance with facial recognition capabilities could aid police in the fight against terror, alerting counter-terror units when a person convicted of terror-related offences is within the proximity of a high-profile building, or an event with large numbers of people such as a sports stadium or concert, for example. Police forces could then send back-up or alert higher authorities but, more importantly, any security staff present would be made aware of a potential threat. Currently, more than 70 people convicted of terror-related offences are on early release, but their identities will not be known to every police officer and certainly not to every security guard. Identifying these people, and the potential of a terror threat, will be key in acting swiftly to prevent an

could achieve this.

Ethical considerations in increasing surveillance and security It’s hard to find that fine line of acceptance between protecting the public and respecting privacy and freedom. This is why so many discussions concerning facial recognition concern ethical use and protection of human rights.

Facial recognition technology has raised concerns over privacy and data storage and retention, not only in an ethical sense, but a security sense. Hackers are becoming ever more sophisticated and savvy at using new technologies, coupled with the fact that breaches of large organisations in the UK are highly publicised, and it’s easy to see how mistrust arises. The key to mitigating these concerns is education and transparency. People fear what they do not understand; fully informing the public of how facial recognition technology works, how it will be used and information on the data it collects – how it will retained for – could encourage the public to trust in the technology. Developments in facial recognition should go hand in hand with efforts to develop cybersecurity, to protect any sensitive data collected from a potential breach.

Some might say that the increased use of surveillance technology, that the mere idea of having security cameras lining our streets and guarding the entrance to every building, workplace and train station may turn Britain into a ‘surveillance state’. While it’s true that being under the constant watchful eyes of security cameras may affect a sense of privacy in public spaces, the presence of the cameras would also make it more difficult to commit crime and could potentially aid the fight against terror.

For further information please visit www.7techgroup.com

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