Police plan to use facial recognition at Appleby Horse Fair with many seeing it as a step too far
Cumbria Police plan to use live facial recognition at this year’s Appleby Horse Fair. Saying it will help officers identify people they believe may cause trouble. The force says the system will scan faces in a public area and compare them with a police watchlist.
Police say the technology will be used to spot people wanted by police or the courts, as well as people believed to pose a risk of harm. They say the system is legal, intelligence-led and limited to a specific place and time.
But many people will still see this as unnecessary, invasive and out of proportion.
Why this feels different
Appleby Horse Fair is not an airport or a counter-terror operation. It is a public fair in Cumbria.
Most people there will be families, traders, horse owners, visitors and local residents. Yet facial recognition means large numbers of ordinary people will have their faces scanned with data possibly stored or used for training, simply because they are in the area.
That is why the move is likely to trouble people. Even if police say the watchlist is small, the system still checks everyone who passes the cameras first. For many, that crosses a line from visible policing into mass surveillance.
Police say it will improve safety
Cumbria Police have compared the fair to a major football match. Arguing that big crowds in a tight space can create risks and that live facial recognition gives officers another tool to keep people safe. The force has already used the technology at a Carlisle United match this year.
Supporters will say that makes sense. Appleby is a huge event, and police already deal with disorder, traffic problems and public safety concerns there every year.
But for others this just raises more questions. Is the audience of a football match really the same as a horse fair?
Why critics are worried
The concern is not about who is on the watchlist. It is about everyone else.
A person can be doing nothing wrong and still have their face scanned while walking through a public event. These AI tools often lack legal safeguards with data possibly being stored and in some cases being used for future training. That is a major step for everyday policing. Parliament’s own briefing on facial recognition says the technology raises concerns around privacy, accuracy and governance.
Civil liberties groups have also argued that live facial recognition is too intrusive and lacks strong enough legal safeguards. Recent debate around court challenges has kept those concerns in the spotlight, even though police use of the technology has continued.
So while police may say the system is targeted, critics argue the experience for the public feels much broader than that.
Why Appleby makes the issue more sensitive
Appleby Horse Fair is closely linked to Gypsy and Traveller communities, which makes this decision even more sensitive.
In that context, using facial recognition risks being seen not just as a safety measure, but as another example of unusually heavy surveillance around an event tied to a minority community. That may not be how police present it but it is a reaction many people are likely to have.
That matters because policing is not only about what is legal. It is also about trust.
If people feel they are being watched in a way that goes beyond what is necessary, that trust can quickly be damaged.
The bigger concern
The Appleby deployment also raises a wider question for Cumbria.
If live facial recognition is now seen as acceptable at a traditional public fair, where else could it be used next? We said ‘ok’ to football matches, we’re letting fairs be next and soon festivals, markets and town centres will look like possible targets.
The more often facial recognition is used in ordinary public spaces, the more normal it becomes.
A step too far for many
Cumbria Police say the move is about safety. But many local people will see it differently.
They will see a traditional public event where thousands of law-abiding people may have their faces scanned just for turning up. They will see a policing tactic that feels more intrusive than necessary. And they will ask whether this is really the kind of surveillance that should be becoming normal in Cumbria.
For that reason, live facial recognition at Appleby is likely to be viewed by many not as smart policing, but as an overstep.
