The Scottish Lib Dems are calling for innocent people to have their image removed from the police database after discovering Police Scotland have added more than 375,000 photos since 2014.
Photographs of suspects are automatically uploaded to the police’s national database and under current laws can stay on there indefinitely – even if the person is found to be innocent
A freedom of information request by the party revealed 375,305 images have been supplied to the national database from Police Scotland’s Criminal History System since 2014.
Scottish Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur has now tabled an amendment to the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Bill that would introduce a presumption that innocent people’s photos be deleted after three years.
The move would bring the regulations in line with current rules for DNA and fingerprint retention, although this time period can be extended by the courts.
Commenting on his proposal, which would apply to those found not guilty in court and people who were not charged, Mr McArtur said: “The volume of pictures being uploaded to the police database is startling and demonstrates how important this resource already is to policing.
“However, innocent people’s images should not be kept on file forever.
“Facial recognition could be valuable for modernising the way police investigate crime but unregulated it is a serious threat to human rights and civil liberties.
“Requiring the police to delete this data after a reasonable period is the common-sense move recommended by John Scott in his review.
“Even the police have said they would welcome new rules to help keep them right.”
He added: “The full force of modern technology means it is easy for companies and public bodies to amass a huge amount of data on us in a short space of time if they are given the opportunity.
“It is time we gave people more control over their data and better control the access that others have.
“Public bodies should be setting a good example.”
Holyrood’s Justice Committee heard evidence from Police Scotland last week about the Biometrics Bill, with Detective Chief Superintendent Sean Scott saying a presumption of deletion is “absolutely right”.
Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Duncan Sloan added the current rules about what the police can do with images of the public are “not as clear” as the rules around fingerprints and DNA.
He said new governance arrangements would be “absolutely valued and very much welcomed”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here