POLICE officers are demanding powers to remove face coverings from suspects following a spate of masked rioters at anti-immigration demonstrations.
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said there was “little point” in investing millions of pounds in proposed live facial recognition technology if people committing crimes and disorder could hide their faces.
David Kennedy, general secretary of the federation, said there were currently “limited circumstances” in which officers can require the removal of an item being worn to conceal someone’s identity, adding the time was right for a “legitimate discussion” around increasing powers.
He said: "We need to make sure police officers have clear and practical legal powers to require the removal of facial coverings where they reasonably believe those coverings are being deliberately used to conceal identity in connection with criminality, violence or serious disorder.”
Police have powers in England to remove face coverings in designated areas and to seize face coverings where officers reasonably believe they are being worn for the purpose of concealing identity, though there are defences for religious, work or medical reasons.
Kennedy added: "It is about people who deliberately conceal their identities in order to commit offences, intimidate others or frustrate the ability of the police to identify them.
“If government and policing are serious about using technology to identify people suspected of serious criminality, they must also be prepared to address deliberate attempts to defeat that technology."
Police Scotland is currently working on a detailed business case for live facial recognition technology.
Amnesty International UK has condemned the technology as “dangerous and discriminatory" and warned its introduction would mark a “historic shift in the relationship between the police and the public in Scotland".
Kennedy added: "Facial recognition should assist police officers, not replace them. If the technology indicates that somebody may be a wanted individual, that should provide an intelligence lead which allows officers to make further enquiries.
“We should never reach the position where a computer says somebody is a particular person and that is simply accepted as fact.”
