Essex Police pause use of live facial recognition after study found it was statistically more likely to identify black people
Crime / Sun 22nd Mar 2026 at 09:04am
ESSEX Police has paused the use of live facial recognition (LFR) cameras after a study found it was statistically more likely to identify black people than other ethnic groups reports the BBC.
Essex Police has used the technology since summer 2024, but the study identified “a potential bias in the positive identification rate” of black people over white people on its watchlist.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q9e4573nvo
RON
2026-03-22 09:29:35
What the hell is that all about?🤔
David Forman
2026-03-22 09:59:48
Essex University wrote a report on facial recognition. Here is its section on bias: "The prohibition of discrimination is codified in Article 2 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This protects individuals and their rights from discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. "A number of concerns exist regarding bias associated with facial recognition technology, whether as a result of difficulties in conducting biometric matching or as a result of inadequate training data. The risk is that this may translate into prohibited forms of discrimination depending on how facial recognition technology is used." See report at https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/human-rights-big-data-and-technology/facial-recognition
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