A row has been sparked as controversial facial recognition tech is set for an Oxfordshire town.
The former Mayor of Witney has criticised the ‘live facial recognition’ technology being used by the police as “flawed and discriminatory”.
Thames Valley Police was set to deploy the technology in Witney Market Square on Friday, July 10, but this was postponed due to resource pressures.
The force added that they would let the public know about any “future deployments” indicating live facial recognition (LFR) is still set for the town.
READ MORE: Police facial recognition vans' Oxfordshire visit cancelled
The technology matches a digital image of human faces against known faces in a database and generates possible matches.
Defending its use, a spokesperson for police said: “We have rigorous legal mandates, equality impact assessments and data protection impact assessments in place, all of which are available to the public.”
However, Witney town councillor and former mayor Andy Bailey said there are numerous problems with the technology.
He said: “We cannot allow Witney to become a testing ground for a digital dragnet that relies on systemic data bias, exhibits proven racial discrimination, and obliterates the British principle of policing by consent.”
Citing his work with the global campaign Stop Killer Robots, he said that these models suffer from significantly higher false-positive rates when scanning women, young people, and individuals with darker skin tones.
In addition, he claimed that the cameras go against the principle of policing by public consent.
The Labour politician said: “We must draw a hard line against invasive technology before it is permanently woven into our local infrastructure.
“Until there is total transparency, independent oversight, and absolute proof that these systems do not discriminate based on gender or skin colour, I am calling for an immediate moratorium on local facial recognition deployments.”
However, a spokesperson for police dismissed the concerns raised by Mr Bailey.
They said: “The technology used by Thames Valley Police for LFR has been tested by the National Physical Laboratory, who concluded that it is highly accurate, and found that there is no demographic bias.
READ MORE: Arrest as armed officers find 'seriously-injured' man in Oxfordshire town
“If a person’s face is scanned and they are not on our pre-determined ‘watchlist’, no alert is generated and their image is deleted.
“To date, during LFR deployments, our engagement with members of the public and local businesses has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Furthermore, Thames Valley Police’s most recent Trust & Confidence Survey, published in 2025, shows that 96 per cent of residents support us using emerging technology, including LFR, with 67 per cent saying they support the force in using LFR to help identify outstanding suspects.”
