The Guardian – Don’t use facial recognition at Notting Hill carnival, rights groups tell police

Big Brother Watch Team / August 16, 2025

Big Brother Watch has led a joint letter with the UK’s leading rights & racial justice organisations to the Met Police urging them to scrap plans to deploy live facial recognition at Notting Hill carnival. In the letter seen by the Guardian, the signatories highlight an ongoing legal challenge against facial recognition brought by Londoner Shaun Thompson who was wrongly flagged as a criminal: 

“Mr Thompson was returning from volunteering with Street Fathers, a youth advocacy and anti-violence community organisation, when he was surrounded by officers and held for half an hour. He has likened the discriminatory impacts of LFR to ‘stop and search on steroids'”

Signatories include The Runnymede Trust, Liberty, Race on the Agenda, and Human Rights Watch.

The Guardian –  Facial recognition cameras too racially biased to use at Notting Hill carnival, say campaigners

BBC – Met urged to scrap Carnival facial recognition plan

The Standard – Met Police urged to scrap facial recognition at Notting Hill Carnival over ‘racial bias’ fears

The Telegraph – Facial recognition cameras at Notting Hill Carnival ‘are racially biased’

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