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R-0132 · registry record · verified 2026-10-10

Essex Police pauses live facial recognition over bias

Live facial recognition deployment by Essex Police, England, paused 2026 after accuracy and bias concerns affecting 2.5 million people

Where
Essex, England, United Kingdom
System
Live facial recognition (Essex Police)
Type of system
Face recognition (AI)
Used by
Essex Police
Domain
Policing
Who was affected
A group or population
People affected
2,500,000
People named
Not identified
Brought to light by
Civil-society report, 2026-03-19
Remedy
Partial

Summary

Essex Police deployed live facial recognition technology, scanning the faces of approximately 2.5 million people without adequately testing the system for accuracy or racial bias. Big Brother Watch and a Cambridge study raised concerns about ineffectiveness and discrimination. Essex Police paused the deployment in March 2026 following scrutiny of the system's bias and accuracy risks.

Sources

  1. Big Brother Watch comments on Essex Police pausing live facial recognitionBig Brother Watch · Originating report
  2. Essex police pauses facial recognition camera use after study finds racial biasLiberty Investigates
  3. OECD AI Incidents Monitor — Essex Police suspends live facial recognition over racial biasOECD AI Incidents Monitor

Tags

Record

First collected
2026-04-14
Last verified
2026-10-10
Verified by
Checked by the author against the sources

Cite this record

The Witnessed Sentence (2026). R-0132: Essex Police pauses live facial recognition over bias. Registry record, verified 2026-10-10. https://witnessedsentence.org/registry/r-0132/

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