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Police forces across the UK effectively campaigned to deploy a facial recognition system acknowledged as discriminatory against women, youths, and individuals from ethnic minority groups, following complaints that a more accurate version produced fewer potential suspects.

The Technology in Practice

British police utilize the police national database (PND) to carry out retrospective facial recognition searches. This process involves comparing a reference photograph of a person of interest against a repository of more than 19 million mugshots to identify potential matches.

Acknowledged Discrimination

The UK interior ministry admitted last week that the system was biased. This acknowledgment came after a review by the government's National Physical Laboratory determined it misidentified people of Black and Asian heritage and females at significantly higher rates than Caucasian males. The Home Office stated it “took steps on the findings”.

“It prompts the issue of whether facial recognition only becomes effective if users tolerate biases in ethnicity and sex. Convenience is a poor argument for disregarding fundamental rights.”

Known Issue

Official papers show that this bias has been known about for more than a year. Furthermore, law enforcement lobbied to reverse an initial decision that was designed to address the problem.

Senior officers were notified of the algorithmic discrimination in September 2024. The government-ordered laboratory study found the system was had a higher probability to produce false positives for photos of females, Black people, and those under 40 years old.

A Policy U-Turn

In reaction, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) ordered that the accuracy setting required for potential matches be raised to a level where the bias was significantly reduced.

However, this decision was overturned the next month following complaints from police that the modified technology was producing a lower number of “investigative leads”. Internal records show the higher threshold cut the number of searches resulting in potential matches from over half to a mere 14%.

Profound Inequalities

Although the Home Office and NPCC refused to say what threshold is currently used, the latest independent review found the system could produce incorrect matches for Black women almost 100 times more often than for Caucasian women at certain settings.

The ministry stated on these results: “Our evaluation found that in a specific scenarios the software is more likely to incorrectly include some population segments in its search results.”

Operational Effectiveness vs. Bias

Outlining the impact of the temporary raise to the system's accuracy setting, the police records state: “This adjustment greatly lessens the effect of bias across protected characteristics of race, generation and sex but had a substantially detrimental effect on police efficiency”. The documents further note that police units complained that “a previously useful tool returned results of questionable value”.

Broader Rollout Plans

Meanwhile, the government has launched a two-and-a-half-month consultation on its proposals to widen the use of biometric scanning systems. Policing minister the relevant minister has labeled the tool as the “biggest breakthrough since genetic fingerprinting”.

Expert and Oversight Concerns

Abimbola Johnson, chair of the independent scrutiny and oversight board for the police race action plan, said: “We observed scant discussion through equality strategy sessions of the technology deployment despite clear relevance with the strategy's goals.

“This disclosure demonstrate once again that the anti-racism commitments the police has made through the equality initiative are not being translated into wider practice. Independent assessments have warned that innovative tools are being implemented in a landscape where racial disparities, weak scrutiny and poor data collection already persist.

“Any use of facial recognition must meet strict national standards, be independently scrutinised, and prove it reduces rather than compounds racial disparity.”

Official Statement

A government representative stated: “The Home Office takes the findings of the study seriously and we have already taken action. A new algorithm has been independently tested and acquired, which has demonstrated no measurable discrimination. It will be trialled in the coming months and will be subject to evaluation.

“Our priority is ensuring public safety. This gamechanging technology will assist police to apprehend and prosecute offenders. There is human involvement in every step of the procedure and no further action would be pursued without specialist personnel meticulously examining the results.”