British Transport Police live facial recognition trial produces one false identification
Preliminary Why: 1 report: Times of India group · subject to change · 1 independent report
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British Transport Police ran a six-month live facial recognition trial at London railway stations, comparing passing faces with a police watchlist. The trial ran from February to July 2026 across 18 deployments. The system produced one alert against a person on the watchlist. Officers checked it and found the person was not the one sought, so the alert was classed as a false positive, and no arrest resulted directly from the technology. The force then extended the trial by four months and added London Underground stations. Sources differ on the number of faces scanned, with one giving more than 500,000 and another 530,000. Critics raised privacy and proportionality concerns.
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What happened, in order
- February 2026 The six-month trial ran across 18 deployments at railway stations.
- 11 February The live facial recognition pilot began.
- August The trial was extended for a further four months, adding London Underground stations.
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- The system produced one alert during the trial, and it was a false identification.
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The alert date is not stated, only the trial window.
LR-2026-0764 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON