Facial recognition errors put ethnic minorities at risk of wrongful arrest, police watchdog warns

A police watchdog has warned that errors and bias in retrospective facial recognition could lead officers to wrongly identify or arrest innocent people, with ethnic minorities at particular risk. The report says some investigators treated potential matches as evidence instead of intelligence requiring further checks, threatening public confidence in the technology.

Inspectors found that poor-quality or unsuitable images can reduce match reliability, and that some custody images were retained when they should have been deleted. They also said legislation has not kept pace with the technology and there is no comprehensive statutory framework for its use. The watchdog called for clearer rules, stronger standards and oversight, and safeguards that preserve human judgement.