Law enforcement agencies across the United Kingdom successfully lobbied to deploy a facial recognition system acknowledged as discriminatory against females, youths, and individuals from ethnic minority groups, following complaints that a more accurate version produced fewer potential suspects.
UK forces use the police national database (PND) to carry out searches using historical face recognition. This procedure involves comparing a “probe image” of a suspect against a database of more than 19 million custody photos to find potential matches.
The UK interior ministry conceded last week that the system was flawed. This acknowledgment followed a study by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) determined it misidentified people of Black and Asian heritage and women at significantly higher rates than white men. The Home Office stated it “had acted on the findings”.
“This raises the question of whether this technology only becomes effective if users accept discrimination in ethnicity and sex. Convenience is a poor argument for overriding fundamental rights.”
Official papers reveal that this discriminatory flaw has been recognized for more than a year. Furthermore, law enforcement argued to overturn an earlier ruling that was designed to address the problem.
Senior officers were informed of the algorithmic discrimination in late 2024. The Home Office-commissioned laboratory study concluded the system was more likely to produce incorrect matches for images depicting women, Black people, and those aged 40 and under.
In response, the national police leadership body ordered that the accuracy setting required for possible hits be increased to a point where the disparity was significantly reduced.
However, this decision was overturned the following month following complaints from police that the adjusted system was producing fewer “useful lines of inquiry”. Internal records show the stricter setting reduced the proportion of searches that yielded possible identifications from 56% to a mere 14%.
Although the Home Office and NPCC declined to specify what setting is currently used, the latest independent review discovered the system could produce incorrect matches for women of Black heritage nearly a hundred times more often than for Caucasian women at certain settings.
The Home Office commented on these findings: “The testing found that in a limited set of circumstances the software is more likely to incorrectly include some population segments in its match reports.”
Outlining the effect of the temporary raise to the system's confidence threshold, the police records state: “The change significantly reduces the effect of discrimination across protected characteristics of race, age and sex but had a significant negative impact on police efficiency”. The papers add that forces complained that “a once effective tactic now delivered results of questionable value”.
Meanwhile, the government has opened a two-and-a-half-month consultation on its proposals to expand the use of biometric scanning systems. Policing minister the relevant minister has labeled the technology as the “most significant advance since genetic fingerprinting”.
Abimbola Johnson, head of the advisory panel for the police race action plan, said: “There was scant consideration through equality strategy sessions of the technology deployment even with clear relevance with the plan’s concerns.
“This disclosure demonstrate yet again that the anti-racism commitments the police has made via the equality initiative are not being translated into broader operations. Independent assessments have warned that innovative tools are being rolled out in a landscape where ethnic inequalities, weak scrutiny and poor data collection already persist.
“Any use of this technology must adhere to strict national standards, be independently scrutinised, and demonstrate it diminishes rather than compounds ethnic bias.”
A Home Office spokesperson stated: “We treat the conclusions of the study seriously and we have already taken action. A updated software has been independently tested and procured, which has demonstrated no measurable discrimination. It will be trialled early next year and will be subject to further assessment.
“The foremost aim is ensuring public safety. This revolutionary tool will assist police to apprehend and prosecute offenders. There is officer review in every step of the process and no arrest or charge would be pursued without trained officers carefully reviewing the output.”
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