Met Police live facial recognition

London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) conducted a series of trials of live facial recognition technology across London between August 2016 and February 2019. 

Using NEC's NeoFace system, the trials took place at the Notting Hill Carnival, Remembrance Sunday, Stratford Westfield shopping centre and Romford.

In April 2023, the Met Police announced it was to resume all forms of facial recognition on the basis of a study it and South Wales Police had commissioned the UK National Physical Laboratory to carry out.

System 🤖

Documents 📃

Transparency and accountability 🙈

The Metropolitan Police's live facial recognition (LFR) trials in London were seen to suffer from several transparency and accountability limitations:

Risks and harms 🛑

The Met Police's facial recognition pilot programme was plagued by criticism from civil and privacy rights advocates and technology and legal experts regarding the accuracy of the system, and complaints about inadequate transparency, accountability, and privacy protection.

Incidents and issues 🔥

Regulation 👩🏼‍⚖️

Legal, regulatory ⚖️

Investigations, assessments, audits 🧐

Research, advocacy 🧮

Page info
Type: System
Published: March 2023
Last updated: December 2024