🔗 Share this article

Law enforcement agencies across the UK successfully lobbied to use a facial recognition system acknowledged as discriminatory against females, young people, and individuals from ethnic minority groups, after complaining that a less biased version produced a reduced number of potential suspects.

How the System Works

British police utilize the national police database to carry out retrospective facial recognition searches. This process involves matching a “probe image” of a suspect against a database of over 19 million mugshots to identify possible hits.

Admitted Bias

The UK interior ministry conceded last week that the technology was biased. This acknowledgment came after a study by the government's National Physical Laboratory determined it incorrectly matched people of Black and Asian heritage and females at much greater frequency than white men. The ministry stated it “took steps on the findings”.

“It prompts the issue of whether this technology only becomes effective if users accept biases in race and gender. Operational ease is a weak argument for overriding basic freedoms.”

Long-Standing Problem

Official papers show that this bias has been recognized for more than a year. Furthermore, law enforcement lobbied to reverse an earlier ruling that was designed to address the problem.

Police bosses were notified of the algorithmic discrimination in late 2024. The Home Office-commissioned laboratory study found the system was had a higher probability to suggest incorrect matches for photos of women, Black people, and those aged 40 and under.

A Reversed Decision

In reaction, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) ordered that the accuracy setting required for possible hits be increased to a level where the bias was greatly diminished.

However, this decision was reversed the following month after forces complained that the modified technology was producing a lower number of “investigative leads”. Internal records show the stricter setting cut the number of searches resulting in possible identifications from over half to a mere 14%.

Severe Disparities

Although the Home Office and NPCC declined to specify what setting is currently used, the latest independent review discovered the system could generate incorrect matches for Black women almost 100 times more often than for white women at specific configurations.

The Home Office commented on these results: “The testing found that in a specific scenarios the algorithm is more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results.”

Operational Effectiveness vs. Bias

Describing the effect of the temporary raise to the system's accuracy setting, the police records state: “This adjustment greatly lessens the impact of discrimination across protected characteristics of ethnicity, age and sex but had a significant negative impact on operational effectiveness”. The documents further note that police units argued that “a once effective tactic returned outcomes of limited benefit”.

Wider Implementation Proposals

Meanwhile, the government has launched a ten-week public review on its proposals to expand the use of facial recognition technology. The minister for police the relevant minister has labeled the technology as the “most significant advance since DNA matching”.

Expert and Oversight Concerns

Abimbola Johnson, head of the advisory panel for the national policing equality strategy, commented: “We observed scant discussion through race action plan meetings of the facial recognition rollout despite obvious cross-over with the plan’s concerns.

“These revelations demonstrate once again that the pledges to combat discrimination policing has undertaken through the race action plan are not being translated into broader operations. Our reports have warned that new technologies are being implemented in a context where ethnic inequalities, weak scrutiny and poor data collection already persist.

“Any use of this technology must meet strict national standards, be independently scrutinised, and demonstrate it reduces rather than compounds racial disparity.”

Official Statement

A government representative said: “We takes the findings of the report seriously and we have already taken action. A updated software has been independently tested and acquired, which has demonstrated no measurable discrimination. It will be tested in the coming months and will be undergo further assessment.

“Our priority is protecting the public. This revolutionary tool will assist police to put criminals and rapists behind bars. There is officer review in each stage of the procedure and no arrest or charge would be pursued without specialist personnel meticulously examining the results.”