🔗 Share this article British Law Enforcement Agencies Lobbied to Employ Biased Facial Recognition Technology Police forces across the UK effectively campaigned to use a facial recognition system known to be biased against females, youths, and individuals from ethnic minority groups, after complaining that a less biased version generated fewer potential suspects. How the System Works British police use the police national database (PND) to conduct retrospective facial recognition searches. This procedure involves matching a reference photograph of a suspect against a repository of more than 19 million mugshots to identify potential matches. Admitted Bias The UK interior ministry admitted last week that the technology was flawed. This admission came after a study by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) found it incorrectly matched people of Black and Asian heritage and women at significantly higher rates than Caucasian males. The ministry stated it “had acted on the findings”. “This raises the question of whether this technology only becomes useful if users accept biases in ethnicity and sex. Convenience is a poor argument for overriding basic freedoms.” Long-Standing Problem Internal documents show that this bias has been known about for more than a year. Furthermore, police forces argued to overturn an earlier ruling that was designed to address the problem. Police bosses were informed of the system's bias in late 2024. The Home Office-commissioned NPL review found the system was had a higher probability to produce false positives for images depicting women, individuals of Black ethnicity, and those aged 40 and under. A Reversed Decision In reaction, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) mandated that the confidence threshold required for possible hits be increased to a point where the bias was greatly diminished. However, this directive was reversed the following month after forces complained that the modified technology was producing fewer “investigative leads”. Internal records indicate the higher threshold reduced the proportion of searches that yielded potential matches from over half to a mere 14%. Profound Inequalities Although the Home Office and NPCC declined to specify what threshold is now in operation, the recent independent review found the system could generate false positives for Black women almost 100 times more frequently than for Caucasian women at certain settings. The Home Office commented on these results: “The testing found that in a specific scenarios the algorithm is has a greater tendency to incorrectly include some population segments in its match reports.” Operational Effectiveness vs. Bias Describing the effect of the brief increase to the system's confidence threshold, the police records state: “This adjustment significantly reduces the impact of discrimination across protected characteristics of ethnicity, age and sex but had a substantially detrimental effect on operational effectiveness”. The papers further note that forces complained that “a once effective tactic now delivered results of questionable value”. Broader Rollout Plans Meanwhile, the UK administration has launched a ten-week public review on its plans to expand the use of biometric scanning systems. Policing minister the relevant minister has labeled the tool as the “most significant advance since DNA matching”. Expert and Oversight Concerns Abimbola Johnson, chair of the advisory panel for the police race action plan, said: “There was scant consideration through equality strategy sessions of the technology deployment even with obvious cross-over with the plan’s concerns. “This disclosure show yet again that the pledges to combat discrimination policing has undertaken through the race action plan are failing to be integrated into wider practice. Independent assessments have cautioned that innovative tools are being rolled out in a context where ethnic inequalities, inadequate oversight and faulty information gathering continue to exist. “All deployment of this technology must adhere to rigorous official guidelines, be subject to external review, and demonstrate it reduces rather than compounds racial disparity.” Official Statement A government representative said: “We takes the findings of the report seriously and we have implemented changes. A updated software has been externally evaluated and procured, which has demonstrated no measurable discrimination. It will be tested early next year and will be undergo evaluation. “Our priority is protecting the public. This revolutionary tool will assist police to apprehend and prosecute offenders. There is officer review in every step of the procedure and no further action would be taken without specialist personnel meticulously examining the results.”