Essex Police resume Corsight AI LFR with 57 arrests, no false matches

Resumed deployments of live facial recognition from Corsight AI by Essex Police have led to dozens of arrests without a single false positive match across scans of 353,000 faces, according to a company announcement.

Essex Police began redeploying the biometric technology in April, after they were paused for an ICO audit last August.

In the meantime, an evaluation by the UK National Physical Laboratory showed a True Positive Identification Rate (TPIR) of 89 percent with a False Positive Identification Rate (FPIR) of 0.017 percent, or 1 in 5,700 matches, with a watchlist of 18,000 images. Cambridge University performed a series of evaluations with the live facial recognition software’s matching  threshold set at 55, and found just over half of those on the watchlist were correctly identified, while false matches were extremely rare.

Corsight supplies the facial recognition algorithms, and Digital Barriers supplies the software and cloud solutions they run on.

Essex Police have now carried out 22 deployments since resuming the program, and of the 353,000 attempted matches, received 173 alerts, 143 of which resulted in interventions. Police report 57 arrests stemming the LFR use, but zero false positive matches.

The College of Policing’s guidance on live facial recognition suggests an FPIR of around 1 in 1,000 is acceptable.

Essex Police would not have been able to make the same 143 interventions using the former ad hoc approach instead of LFR, Corsight says based on departmental data.

Corsight AI President Rob Watts says the results show the effectiveness of “Facial Intelligence” that “is built for real-world conditions” for making police actions more effective and more proportionate at the same time.

“Deploying Live Facial Recognition isn’t just about introducing new technology, it’s about ensuring it’s implemented responsibly, transparently, and within the legal framework that protects the public,” says Corsight AI Chief Privacy Officer and former UK Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter OBE QPM LLB. “When those foundations are in place, police forces can adopt AI with confidence, strengthening operational effectiveness while maintaining the highest standards of governance and public trust.”

Essex Police are planning nine deployments of LFR between July 31 and August 9.

Article Topics

biometric matching  |  Corsight  |  Digital Barriers  |  Essex Police  |  law enforcement  |  live facial recognition  |  UK