Thread · HN Continuity

I note this line in the article which suggests to me that they have very likely limited the watchlist and perhaps excluded certain racial groups to avoid more accusations of bias which leads to less arrests.

“A particularly important point is that watchlist growth has been deliberate, controlled and aligned to BTP policy. We began with a more limited watchlist whilst ensuring data quality, governance and safeguarding arrangements were robust.”

This reads to me as weasel words that basically imply they are almost certainly limiting the watch list to likely now avoid certain categories of people who they really don't want to catch because then they would inevitably end up fielding accusations of being 'institutionally racist'.

This is because last year in Croydon (along with various other areas in you search articles on the subject) they apparently have found quite a lot of alleged criminals with facial recognition technology. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddpzglzrv7o" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddpzglzrv7o "More than 170 alleged criminals, including a woman wanted for more than 20 years, were arrested during a six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) in south London."

But then there was also this one where it turned out it was a little bit too successful in picking up black people leading to accusations of racial bias, although it could also be there are just more people with criminal history in that community for various reasons. <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/essex-police-pauses-use-of-live-facial-recognition-cameras-due-to-racial-bias-concerns-13521951" rel="nofollow">https://news.sky.com/story/essex-police-pauses-use-of-live-f... "Essex Police has paused the use of live facial recognition cameras (LFR) after a study found they identified more black people than other ethnic groups."