The facial recognition technology deployed at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival has “significantly improved” from previous years and will be used without bias, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said the live facial recognition (LFR) technology will help locate any dangerous individuals attending the carnival over the August bank holiday weekend.
He was responding to concerns raised by 11 groups, who in a letter to the commissioner claimed the technology was a “mass surveillance tool that treats all carnival-goers as potential suspects” and has “no place at one of London’s biggest cultural celebrations”.
It also said that LFR technology was “less accurate for women and people of colour” in certain settings.
Sir Mark said that when the technology was used at the carnival in 2016 and 2017, it “did not build public confidence”, but has since “significantly improved” and now performs to a “much higher standard”.
He added that the force has selected the algorithm it uses “with care” and knows how to use it in a non-discriminatory way.
The letter, signed by groups including Liberty and Big Brother Watch, said there is “no clear legal basis” for Scotland Yard’s use of LFR.
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The letter added: “Notting Hill Carnival is an event that specifically celebrates the British African Caribbean community, yet the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) is choosing to use a technology with a well-documented history of inaccurate outcomes and racial bias.”
Rebecca Vincent, interim director at Big Brother Watch, said she is “deeply disappointed” that the Met “has chosen to dig its heels in” after the call to scrap the “Orwellian” technology.
She added: “We all want criminals off the streets, but turning (the) carnival into a mass police line-up is not the way to do it.”
Around 7,000 police officers and staff will be on duty each day throughout the weekend.
Police will use LFR cameras to identify individuals listed as wanted in the national police database.
Meanwhile, a UK retail facial recognition system has reported its highest-ever monthly total of suspect alerts, its operators say.
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Facewatch said in July 2025, it sent 43,602 alerts to subscriber retail stores – the equivalent of more than 10,000 suspects flagged every week for the first time. The figures also represent a 134.8% increase compared to July 2024.
Facewatch reported a total of 407,771 alerts over the 12 months leading up to 31 July, with current live data indicating that the upward trend is continuing into August.
