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

> Original title: Police use facial recognition to scan one million faces in WA trial leading to 122 arrests

- Source: The Guardian · AI
- Published: 2026-11-02T02:02:34.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/wx9rqqxmkkbey4th2zpt6gljd
- Original: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/nov/02/wa-police-facial-recognition-technology-trial

## Summary

Western Australia Police say a five-month real-time facial recognition trial scanned 1,380,882 faces across 100 deployments and produced 122 arrests and nine incorrect alerts. Police put the error rate at 0.00065%, but civil liberties advocate Bill Rowlings says that figure should be measured against convictions from the arrests. The surveillance vans have been removed from public use while police evaluate the trial.