Australia to Trial Live Facial Recognition (LFR) in Police Work Amid Privacy Scrutiny

Western Australia Police Force (WAPF) will run a one-week trial of live facial recognition (LFR) from June 22 to June 28 to help prevent and detect crime, locate wanted offenders, find missing people, and support vulnerable residents. The system uses visible cameras to create biometric templates in real time and compares them against an official police alert list for serious offences, reportable offenders, missing persons, and people under lawful restrictions. When a potential match is found, LFR generates an alert for officers to decide whether to engage or take further action. WAPF says the trial will use overt, time-limited deployments in public spaces, with cameras positioned near marked police vehicles. For privacy, it states that images of people not on the alert list are pixelated in real time and not stored, and that no data will be shared with third parties. It also says extra scrutiny will apply before using LFR near sensitive locations such as hospitals, schools, and places of worship. The move follows a similar, more contentious path in the UK. In January 2026, the Metropolitan Police (Met) faced a legal challenge over LFR expansion. The High Court heard allegations that in 2025 the Met used LFR 231 times and scanned about four million faces, with Oxford Circus cameras reportedly scanning 50,000 people in four and a half hours. Campaigners such as Big Brother Watch have argued that LFR is intrusive and risks discriminatory, non-democratic surveillance. UK uptake has continued, including a six-month LFR trial announced by the British Transport Police in February.