‘Only in our best interest, right?’ Public perceptions of police use of facial recognition technology

Facial recognition technology (FRT) offers police a fast, efficient, and accurate way of identifying criminals. However, as with any new technology, the public is often sceptical about how the police will use this technology and how it may impinge on the public’s privacy and security. Subsequently, if police use of FRT is perceived as illegitimate, police-citizen relationships may deteriorate – this is especially concerning given the current lack of trust and confidence in police as expressed in the Black Lives Matter movement and other protests against police actions. This paper takes a novel approach to examining public opinions and attitudes about the use of FRT by police. To do this, we thematically analysed 609 public commentary posts published on 71 YouTube clips about police use of FRT. We found that the public in this sample expressed mostly negative sentiments about the use of FRT by police, identifying three main concerns: authority and power, technology, rights and freedoms. However, we also found some support for police using FRT. These findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical concept of the new regulatory state; in particular steering (government policy) and rowing (implementation). These findings suggest that if police authorities and policy makers address these specific concerns by being transparent in their practices and educate the public about misinformation, then policing agencies may have an increase support for the use of FRT by police and, moreover, build trust and confidence in police.