Police forces in England and Wales and the National Crime Agency need stronger governance, national standards and training for retrospective facial recognition, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said in an inspection report that makes 16 recommendations.
Retrospective facial recognition, or RFR, compares images from CCTV, dashcams, social media and other sources with custody images held on national police systems to identify suspects and missing or deceased people. Forces have routinely run such searches through the Police National Database since 2013. Investigators were carrying out about 24,000 RFR searches a month at the time of the inspection, and forces ran 291,341 searches in the year ending March 31, 2026, of which 74 percent returned at least one face match.
The Home Secretary commissioned the inspection in November 2025. Inspectors found that the technology can be a valuable and proportionate investigative tool, but that legislation has not kept up with it and there is no comprehensive statutory framework governing police use of facial recognition. The government said last week it will legislate on police facial recognition and create an oversight body.
The report found that governance varies widely between forces. Four of the forces inspected had no local guidance and relied on limited national publications, mainly the Police National Database manual of guidance. Some images that should have been deleted under retention rules remained available for facial recognition searches. Some less experienced investigators did not always understand that a potential match must be corroborated through further enquiries, and in some cases officers relied too much on potential matches.
Policing has taken steps on algorithm bias. After a 2024 National Physical Laboratory test found performance varied between demographic groups, the police lead for the database set national mitigation actions and the search algorithm was changed. The inspectorate said more needs to be done to reduce the risk of wrongful arrests.
Recommendations include requiring forces and the National Crime Agency to carry out and record data protection impact assessments by June 30, 2027, a College of Policing review of training for database users by the same date, and consideration by the National Police Chiefs’ Council of removing RFR search access from personnel outside centralised or established RFR teams by the end of 2027.
“Police forces must be able to show that appropriate safeguards are in place, risks relating to bias and data retention are effectively managed, and decisions are still subject to human judgment,” said His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Kathryn Stone. “A clearer statutory framework, stronger national standards and improved governance and oversight arrangements are essential to maintaining public confidence.”
Sources: HMICFRS, HMICFRS report
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
