🔗 Share this article British Law Enforcement Agencies Lobbied to Use Discriminatory Facial Recognition Systems Police forces across the UK effectively campaigned to deploy a face scanning system known to be discriminatory against women, young people, and individuals from ethnic minority groups, after complaining that a more accurate version generated a reduced number of potential suspects. The Technology in Practice British police utilize the national police database to carry out retrospective facial recognition searches. This process entails matching a reference photograph of a person of interest against a database of more than 19 million mugshots to identify possible hits. Acknowledged Discrimination The UK interior ministry admitted last week that the technology was biased. This acknowledgment followed a review by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) determined it misidentified Black and Asian people and females at much greater frequency than Caucasian males. The ministry said it “had acted on the findings”. “This raises the question of whether this technology only becomes useful if users tolerate biases in race and gender. Convenience is a weak argument for overriding fundamental rights.” Long-Standing Problem Official papers reveal that this bias has been recognized for over twelve months. Furthermore, police forces lobbied to reverse an initial decision that was intended to mitigate the problem. Police bosses were informed of the algorithmic discrimination in late 2024. The government-ordered laboratory study found the system was had a higher probability to produce incorrect matches for images depicting females, individuals of Black ethnicity, and those aged 40 and under. A Policy U-Turn In response, the national police leadership body ordered that the accuracy setting required for possible hits be raised to a point where the disparity was greatly diminished. However, this directive was reversed the following month after forces complained that the adjusted system was generating fewer “investigative leads”. Internal records indicate the stricter setting cut the number of queries that yielded possible identifications from over half to a just 14%. Severe Disparities Although the authorities refused to say what threshold is currently used, the latest NPL study discovered the system could generate incorrect matches for Black women almost 100 times more frequently than for Caucasian women at certain settings. The Home Office stated on these findings: “The testing identified that in a limited set of circumstances the software is has a greater tendency to incorrectly include some population segments in its match reports.” Balancing Utility and Fairness Describing the impact of the brief increase to the system's confidence threshold, the NPCC documents note: “This adjustment significantly reduces the effect of discrimination across protected characteristics of ethnicity, age and gender but had a significant negative impact on police efficiency”. The documents add that forces argued that “a previously useful tool returned outcomes of limited benefit”. Wider Implementation Proposals Meanwhile, the government has launched a ten-week public review on its proposals to widen the use of facial recognition technology. Policing minister the relevant minister has labeled the technology as the “biggest breakthrough since genetic fingerprinting”. Criticism from Advisors and Monitors Abimbola Johnson, chair of the independent scrutiny and oversight board for the national policing equality strategy, commented: “We observed very little consideration in equality strategy sessions of the technology deployment even with obvious cross-over with the plan’s concerns. “This disclosure show once again that the pledges to combat discrimination policing has made via the equality initiative are not being translated into broader operations. Independent assessments have cautioned that innovative tools are being implemented in a landscape where ethnic inequalities, weak scrutiny and faulty information gathering continue to exist. “All deployment of this technology must adhere to strict national standards, be subject to external review, and demonstrate it reduces rather than compounds ethnic bias.” Official Statement A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Office takes the findings of the study seriously and we have already taken action. A updated software has been externally evaluated and procured, which has demonstrated no measurable discrimination. It will be tested in the coming months and will be undergo evaluation. “Our priority is protecting the public. This revolutionary tool will assist officers to put criminals and rapists behind bars. There is officer review in each stage of the procedure and no further action would be taken without trained officers carefully reviewing the results.”