Metropolitan Police boss Sir Mark Rowley has said live facial recognition (LFR) technology will be used without bias amid concerns about it being deployed at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival.
In a letter to the commissioner, 11 groups had said the technology is 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.
Responding to the concerns, Sir Mark said the technology will help locate any dangerous individuals attending Notting Hill carnival over the August bank holiday weekend.
He wrote 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”.
Sir Mark acknowledged concerns about bias in facial recognition technology, adding that the force has selected the algorithm it uses “with care” and knows how to use it in a non-discriminatory way.
It comes after 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.
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.”
About 7,000 officers and staff will be deployed each day over the weekend.
LFR cameras will be used by police at the carnival to search for people who are marked as being wanted on the police national computer.
Meanwhile, a UK retail facial recognition system has reported its highest-ever monthly total of suspect alerts, its operators say.
In July 2025, Facewatch sent 43,602 alerts to subscriber retail stores – the equivalent of more than 10,000 suspects flagged every week for the first time and a 134.8% increase compared to July 2024 (18,564).
Over the 12 months to July 31, Facewatch said it recorded 407,771 alerts in total, with current live data already showing the rising trend continuing into August.
Nick Fisher, chief executive of Facewatch, said: “July’s record numbers are a further stark warning that retailers and their employees are facing unprecedented levels of criminal activity, including violent and aggressive behaviour.”
A spokeswoman for Big Brother Watch said: “This technology turns shoppers into walking barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects, with devastating consequences for people’s lives when it inevitably makes mistakes.”
