WA police facial recognition trial scans 1.38m faces, arrests 122, sparks privacy backlash
Western Australia's five-month facial recognition trial concluded with 122 arrests but civil liberties groups dispute police claims of accuracy.
What to know
- A five-month WA police facial recognition trial scanned 1.38 million faces, made 122 arrests, and generated nine false alerts (0.00065% error rate by police calculation).
- Civil liberties advocates dispute the error rate, arguing it should be recalculated once arrested individuals are convicted or acquitted in court.
- Privacy concerns center on the scale and scope of mass biometric surveillance, including deployments at public demonstrations, and whether it is proportionate in a democracy.
- No individuals were arrested as a result of false matches, and police say officers followed standard procedure in engaging with all 1.38 million scanned individuals.
The dispute Police claim a 0.00065% error rate demonstrates responsible deployment; civil liberties groups argue this metric is meaningless without knowing final conviction rates for the 122 arrested individuals. · positions read across 2 posts and comments
Police error rate claims are misleading; true accuracy cannot be assessed until arrests result in convictions.
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“We will only know what the incorrect rate is when the 122 people arrested have their day in court.”
Bill Rowlings · The Guardian ↗
Mass surveillance of 1.38 million people without suspicion is disproportionate and poses real harms to individuals wrongly flagged.
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“Every false match is a real person who may be stopped, questioned or investigated because an algorithm got it wrong.”
Sarah Schwartz · The Guardian ↗
“It's a very, very, very low number. It's not zero. We'd love it to be zero. But I think the important thing for us is to engage with our community just like we would if a human thought someone was a wanted person.”
Col Blanch, WA police commissioner · The Guardian ↗
Col Blanch WA police commissionerBill Rowlings Chief executive, Civil Liberties AustraliaSarah Schwartz Legal director, Human Rights Law CentreWestern Australia Police Trial operator
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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WA police commissioner defends false alert rate as 'very, very, very low' — Col Blanch addressed the nine false matches at a media conference, claiming a 0.00065% error rate and stating that no one was arrested or made complaints over the false alerts. He acknowledged the technology was 'not perfect' but said officers followed standard procedures.
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Civil liberties groups reject police error rate calculations
Bill Rowlings of Civil Liberties Australia said police were 'severely gilding the lily' and argued the error rate should instead be calculated by how many of the 122 arrests result in convictions. Sarah Schwartz of the Human Rights Law Centre questioned whether mass biometric surveillance is proportionate in a democracy and raised concerns about deployments at public demonstrations.
“We will only know what the incorrect rate is when the 122 people arrested have their day in court.”
— Bill Rowlings -
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“More than a million people have had their faces scanned in a trial of real-time facial recognition technology in Western Australia, resulting in 122 arrests and nine [“]incorrect alerts[“].” # auspol # laborvalues https://www. theguardian.com/australia-news /2026/nov/02/wa-police-facial-recognition-technology-trial
1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
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https://www. europesays.com/thestates/10983 6/ Police use facial recognition to scan one million faces in WA trial leading to 122 arrests | Western Australia # Washington # WashingtonState
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Facial recognition trial concludes with 122 arrests — After 100 deployments, the trial scanned 1,380,882 faces, generated 122 arrests, led to engagement with 146 registered sex offenders, and located 10 people for welfare checks. The system produced nine incorrect alerts.
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WA police commence five-month facial recognition trial — Western Australia police began deploying real-time facial recognition technology across 43 regional and metropolitan locations over a five-month period.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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2 outlets Police use facial recognition to scan one million faces in WA trial leading to 122 arrests
first by Guardian Tech, 9d ago · also Guardian