WA police facial recognition trial scans 1.38 million faces, 122 arrests

Western Australia Police ran a five-month real-time facial recognition trial from marked vans at 43 locations, including the Perth Royal Show, scanning 1,380,882 faces. It produced 122 arrests and nine false alerts, while civil liberties groups said the scans had no reasonable suspicion and that the true error rate will not be known until the arrests are tested in court. The trial shows automated identification of crowds in public spaces moving from concept toward routine policing, raising unresolved questions about oversight, privacy and how far persistent observation becomes normal.