Safeguarding our biometric future, on the acquisition, retention, use and destruction of biometric data for criminal justice and police purposes in Scotland.
Bridgeside House, EH7 4NS
Joined September 2024
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The Commissioner has today laid his Outcomes Report before Parliament. The report highlights what we have achieved during our first Strategic Plan from 2021/25.
biometricscommissioner.scot/…
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
Not. All. Facial. Recognition. Is. Surveillance. 🚫👁️
While clickbait headlines fuel a lot of fear, the reality of biometrics is much more nuanced. From speeding up border control to securing your phone, we separate biometric fact from fiction.
Get the insights on data privacy and responsible use here: youtu.be/_KDThI4Smnw
#FacialRecognition #Privacy #Biometrics #ResponsibleBiometrics #TechExplainer
The SBC has today published the
findings of a joint review carried out to provide assurance that the ‘acquisition,
retention, use and destruction of fingerprints for policing and criminal justice purposes
in Scotland is lawful, effective and ethical’.
On the 11 November the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner published his latest Strategic Plan for 2025-29. The full report can be found on our website.
We are looking for your views on our draft Strategic Plan which will run from November 2025 to November 2029.
Views on our draft Strategic Plan for 2025 to 2029 | Scottish Biometrics Commissioner
In collaboration with @ScotPolAuth and @diffleypartners , @ScotBiometrics has revisited public views on use of biometrics, with results suggesting modest improvement in levels of public confidence in the use of biometrics in policing.
Read here:
biometricscommissioner.scot/…
While @PoliceScotland has never used live facial recognition technology, a new @ScotBiometrics and @HMICS report states their use of retrospective image search technology is “both lawful and ethical”.
Read the report here: biometricscommissioner.scot/…
ALT The future of law enforcement lies in the right balance between new technologies and safeguarding fundamental rights.” Dr Brian Plastow, Scottish Biometrics Commissioner
The value of retrospective image search technology as not just a tool to catch criminals, but to identify and safeguard child abuse victims has been highlighted in a new report by @ScotBiometrics and @HMICS.
Read here: biometricscommissioner.scot/…
ALT "Retrospective image search technology can be of high value to policing when dealing with serious crime.”
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
Poor quality custody images risks facial recognition technology in Scotland, according to force watchdog. Scottish Biometrics Commissioner warns ‘software issue’ causing images to be captured at lower than recommended minimum size
⬇️
futurescot.com/poor-quality-…
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
The use of low-resolution police custody images for facial recognition has been called into question in Scotland.
glasgowstandard.com/2025/03/…
The number of times @PoliceScotland has used facial recognition technology to detect potential matches with images of suspects captured from devices including video doorbells and CCTV, has been revealed in a new @ScotBiometrics and @HMICS report.
ALT Police Scotland carried out 3,813 retrospective facial searches via the Police National Database between April 2023 – March 2024
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
There's a warning repeat offenders are harder to identify due to low quality custody photos taken by Police Scotland.
Forces across the UK upload images of everyone they arrest to a national database. This allows officers to match them with footage and photos from new crimes.
But the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner's found many images taken between 2019 and 2024 aren't good enough for software used to identify suspects.
Police Scotland say they are already aware of the issue and are working to improve image quality
A new report by @ScotBiometrics and @HMICS has called on @PoliceScotland to improve the quality of its custody photos, after finding a ‘sizeable proportion’ it took since 2019 cannot be used by facial recognition technology.
Read report below
biometricscommissioner.scot/…
ALT “If the quality of custody photos taken by Police Scotland doesn’t improve, it could lead to crimes not being detected.” Dr Brian Plastow, Scottish Biometrics Commissioner
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
Custody photos 'too poor' for facial recognition software bbc.in/4hLI5YX
Scottish Biometrics Commissioner retweeted
Police Scotland said a ‘software issue’ was causing the custody images to be captured at a lower than recommended minimum size.
news.stv.tv/west-central/poo…
In partnership with @hmics , @ScotBiometrics publish our assurance review on retrospective facial search technologies utilised by @PoliceScotland
4 recommendations are made in total.
The report is available here: biometricscommissioner.scot/…
We are proud to have recently been accepted as a Member Organisation of
@DEScotTweets
@ScotBiometrics are committed to hearing the voice of Disabled Groups in Scotland, and look forward to collaboration with Disability Equality Scotland in future.
@ScotBiometrics @ScotPolAuth @lrcfs our joint Assurance Review on Policing use of DNA is laid in parliament today, read here:
biometricscommissioner.scot/…
