WA Police Facial Recognition Trial Scans 1.38 Million Faces, Leads to 122 Arrests
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Nov 2
WA Police Facial Recognition Trial Scans 1.38 Million Faces, Leads to 122 Arrests
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Nov 2
Summary
Western Australia police ended a five-month real-time facial recognition trial after 100 deployments at 43 sites scanned 1,380,882 faces and produced 122 arrests.
Nine incorrect alerts were recorded — which police put at a 0.00065% error rate — while officers also engaged 146 registered sex offenders and located 10 people for welfare checks.
Col Blanch said no one was arrested over the false matches and that non-matching faces were pixelated and deleted immediately, with cameras mounted on or near marked police vehicles.
Civil Liberties Australia disputed the police error-rate framing, arguing accuracy should be judged against eventual court outcomes, while privacy officials and experts warned of broader privacy harms and possible bias.
The surveillance vans have now been withdrawn from public use as WA police conduct an internal review of the trial's performance, safeguards and community impact.