The Metropolitan police's claims that their use of live facial recognition is bias-free are not substantiated by the report they cite to support their case, a leading expert on the technology has said. The Met is planning its biggest and most high profile use of LFR yet this bank holiday weekend at Notting Hill carnival in west London. The Guardian understands it will be deployed at two sites on the approaches to the carnival, with the force insisting on its use despite the Equality and Human Rights Commission saying police use of LFR is unlawful. The new claims come from Prof Pete Fussey, who led the only independent academic review of police use of facial recognition, is a former reviewer of LFR for the Met from 2018-19, and currently advises other forces in the UK and abroad on its use. The Met says it has reformed its use of LFR after a 2023 study it commissioned from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and it is now, in effect, bias-free. But Fussey said: "The claims the Met are making about the absence of bias from the NPL report are not substantiated by the facts in that report."

Police should be banned from using live facial recognition technology in all public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws, a study has concluded. LFR involves linking cameras to databases containing photos of people. Images from the cameras can then be checked against those photos to see if they match. British police have experimented with the technology, believing it can help combat crime and terrorism. But in some cases, courts have found against the way police have used LFR, and how they have dealt with infringements of the privacy rights of people walking in the streets where the technology has been used.