This book takes the complex and highly topical theme of AI-driven surveillance and reduces it to simple but important questions. Drawing upon the author’s professional experience as UK’s first joint Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, the book provides a unique perspective of law enforcement, legal practice and government regulation. The book brings together a number of critical concepts from the rise of AI-driven surveillance in a collection of credible but readable and relatable essays expanding on the author’s successful bi-monthly column in Biometric Update, a daily professional news hub with an annual readership of 3m+. Using real life examples to illustrate the key technical, legal and societal considerations, the book sets out the key elements from the tryptych of the technologically possible (what can be done), the legally permissible (what must/must not be done) and the societally acceptable (what the citizen supports/expects to be done). The book shows how this perspective affects the design, development, and deployment tools that address the challenges of accountability in law enforcement. The author studies these together with other projects looking at citizen behaviour, expectations and the legal and human rights considerations raised by the proliferation of sophisticated surveillance technology, not only in the hands of state agencies, but also the citizen themselves. The book is a unique addition to the field, tackling important and controversial areas of policy, law and practice in an informative and straightforward way.
