South Wales Police has vowed to scan football fans with live facial recognition, but it has been getting slammed by supporters.
Those planning on attending the match at the Liberty Stadium will be scanned by facial recognition cameras in order to identify ‘potential troublemakers’.
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The technology would flag up known offenders whose photos are already on police databases. However those angry about the plans said they plan on wearing ‘Halloween masks’ in protest at the surveillance technology.
Vince Alms, spokesperson for Football Supporters’ Association Wales, has strongly condemned use of the technology in today’s match.
He said: “We strongly oppose the police decision to use facial recognition. It’s just a local football match, yet we haven’t had a say and we can’t opt out.
“Thousands of innocent fans who have never committed a crime in their lives, including children, will have their faces scanned and data collected by police.
“It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a surveillance state.”
It will be the first time the two teams play each other for five years but the last few times they’ve met have seen a huge amount of arrests made.
— Vince Alm (@alm_vince) October 27, 2019
Rights groups have criticised the technology. Big Brother Watch are setting up a crowdfunded legal challenge against the Met Police and Home Secretary.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “We stand by fans who are rightly alarmed and outraged.
“The police decision to target them with intrusive mass surveillance treats all fans as suspects, damages trust and is a total waste of public money. ‘Police are eroding basic civil liberties whilst politicians look the other way.”
Fans have given their thoughts on the facial recognition cameras being used on fans attending Swansea v Cardiff – see what they had to say on the next page.
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