Rights and LimitsStopped in the street or in a vehicleLive facial recognition cameras: what the law actually says
Live facial recognition cameras: what the law actually says
What you must do, and what you can refuse
Every claim below links to the law it comes from, with the wording quoted so you can check it yourself.
You can refuse
No penalty for saying no.
Cover your face, look away, or otherwise avoid an LFR camera, without a specific authorisation being in force.
The power to require removal of a face covering only exists while an authorisation covering that place and time is in force — it is not a general rule.
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, s.60AA(1)
“Where— an authorisation under section 60 is for the time being in force in relation to any locality for any period— those powers shall be exercisable at any place in that locality at any time in that period”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-25
Lawful to refuse — but it costs you
Not an offence, but it carries a penalty or an inference.
Police do not need grounds relating to you personally before an LFR camera scans and matches your face — the underlying power is a general one.
R (Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058, para 38
“using cameras with AFR technology to obtain the biometric data of members of the public in public falls within the common law powers of the police to obtain and store information for policing purposes”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-25
If a s.60AA authorisation is in force, a uniformed officer can require you to remove an item worn wholly or mainly to conceal your identity.
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, s.60AA(2)
“This subsection confers power on any constable in uniform— to require any person to remove any item which the constable reasonably believes that person is wearing wholly or mainly for the purpose of concealing his identity”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-25
The penalty for refusing under a live authorisation is up to a month’s imprisonment or a level 3 fine, or both.
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, s.60AA(7)
“A person who fails to remove an item worn by him when required to do so by a constable in the exercise of his power under this section shall be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale or both.”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-25
What live facial recognition actually is
Live facial recognition (LFR) systems, such as the “AFR Locate” deployment examined by the Court of Appeal, work by scanning faces from CCTV footage in real time and comparing them against a watchlist compiled for that deployment. The leading case describes it plainly: cameras capture images of members of the public, which are then processed and compared against a watchlist.
Everyone whose face passes the camera gets scanned — not just people the police are looking for. Most matches are deleted quickly if there is no hit against the watchlist, but the scanning itself is not targeted at you individually.
Is it even lawful? Mostly, yes
The Court of Appeal in R (Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police found that using cameras to capture and match faces against a watchlist falls within the existing common law powers of the police to obtain and store information for policing purposes — it did not need a brand-new law to exist at all.
What the court found unlawful was how South Wales Police had used it on the facts of that case: gaps in its data protection impact assessment and a failure to properly consider equality impacts, particularly the risk of racial and gender bias in the software. LFR itself was not banned — the deployment failed on process, not on the basic legality of the technology.
No, you do not have to avoid the camera
There is no general offence of walking past an LFR camera, being scanned by one, or being caught on one deliberately or otherwise. There is also no general power for an officer to stop you and demand you show your face to a camera, or to accuse you of an offence for looking away, wearing sunglasses, or otherwise not co-operating with a deployment you have not been individually stopped over.
That changes only if a specific, separate power is switched on.
The one real trigger: a s.60AA authorisation
Where a senior officer has given an authorisation — the same kind used for suspicionless stop and search under s.60 CJPOA 1994, covering a specific place for a specific period — a uniformed constable can require you to remove an item you are wearing wholly or mainly to conceal your identity. This is a face-covering power, not an LFR power specifically, but it is the provision most likely to be invoked around a facial recognition deployment.
Refusing to remove the item when validly required under an authorisation like this is a criminal offence, carrying up to a month’s imprisonment or a fine. Outside a live authorisation, no such requirement exists — so it is worth asking, directly, whether one is in force before assuming you must comply.
Last reviewed 2026-08-25. Next review due 2027-02-25. No solicitor has reviewed this page — see [email protected] if you think something here is wrong.