Interpol plans facial recognition database to catch suspects

The debate in the United Kingdom about the government’s sweeping Data Communications Bill is still raging, and here is another issue which will add fuel to the privacy-vs.-security fire. Interpol is planning to expand its role into the mass screening of passengers moving around the world by creating a face recognition database to catch wanted suspects. The Guardian’s Owen Bowcott writes that every year more than 800 million international travelers fail to undergo “the most basic scrutiny” to check whether their identity documents have been stolen, the global policing cooperation body has warned.

Senior officials want a system that lets immigration officers capture digital images of passengers and immediately cross-check them against a database of pictures of terror suspects, international criminals and fugitives. The U.K.’s first automated face recognition gates — matching passengers to their digital image in the latest generation of passports — began operating at Manchester airport in August. Mark Branchflower, head of Interpol’s fingerprint unit, will this week unveil proposals in London for the creation of biometric identification systems that could be linked to such immigration checks.

Bowcott writes that the growth of international criminal gangs and the spread of terrorist threats has increased demand for Interpol’s services. Last year it carried out 10,000 fingerprint searches; this year the figure will reach 20,000. An automated fingerprint identification system with far greater capacity, known as Metamorpho, will be installed next year. Earlier this month Interpol launched its “global security initiative” aimed at raising $1 billion to strengthen its law enforcement programs. It claims to hold the “names and identifiers” of 9,000 terrorist suspects.