London rail facial recognition trial cost £320k and made no arrests

Summarised from 4 outlets · 5 reports · Updated 2 Oct, 12:20 · Archive

A six-month facial recognition trial at London railway stations cost over £320,000 and resulted in no arrests.

British Transport Police conducted a six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology across some of London's busiest railway stations between February and July this year. The trial scanned over half a million faces at multiple transport hubs, with the technology deployed 18 times during the pilot programme.

The initiative cost more than £320,000 and required almost 100 hours of police officers' time. However, it generated only a single alert when a face was matched against a watchlist of suspects—and that match proved to be a false positive, producing no arrests. Freedom of information documents obtained by Liberty Investigates and shared with The Guardian revealed these results.

How it is being reported

• BTP's facial recognition trial in London cost £320K, scanned 500K faces - and led to no arrestsThe trial cost more than £320,000 and took up almost 100 hours of police officers’ time between February and July this yearEvening Standard · 1 Oct, 06:44
• UK rail cops' £320K face-scanning spree nets zero matchesBritish Transport Police’s six-month facial recognition pilot produced one alert, and it was a false positiveThe Register · 30 Sept, 09:30
• Facial recognition trial at railway stations cost £320k and led to just one alert... which was wrongBritish Transport Police spent more than £320,000 on a six-month live facial recognition (LFR) trial across London's railway stations, scanning upwards of half a million faces yet failing to produce a single arrest. The pilot programme ran from February to July this year, deploying the surveillance technology 18 times at some of the capital's busiest transport hubs. Freedom of information documents obtained by Liberty Investigates and shared with The Guardian revealed that the entire exercise generated just one watchlist alert - which proved to be a false positive. Equipment hire and officer…GB News · 30 Sept, 06:18
• Facial recognition trial in London stations leads to zero arrestsThe trial cost more than £320,000 and took up almost 100 hours of police officers’ time between February and July this yearEvening Standard · 29 Sept, 20:26
• Trial of live facial recognition cameras in London stations ends with one false positiveFreedom of information request shows six-month trial cost £320,000, used almost 100 police hours and resulted in no arrests A six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology in London’s railway stations that cost more than £320,000 and almost 100 hours of police officers’ time ended in one false match against a watchlist of suspects and no arrests. More than half a million faces were scanned between February and July this year in some of the capital’s busiest transport hubs during the British Transport Police (BTP) trial of the surveillance technology, which aimed to help catch…Guardian World · 29 Sept, 10:48

In this story: British Transport Police · London · Liberty Investigates

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