Essex police paused live facial recognition deployments after a study found accuracy and bias risks. Following a revision of policies and a software update, the force are now set to resume deployments. Campaign group Big Brother Watch said that facial recognition is “authoritarian, inaccurate and ineffective in equal measure”. Commenting on Essex Police’s use of this technology, the group’s head of research Jake Hurfurt said the technology “put the rights of thousands of people at risk”.
“LFR as a tool of general mass surveillance has no place in a democracy like Britain, but if police are going to use it the very least the public can expect is that it doesn’t racially discriminate against people,” he added.