Leicestershire Police

Confirmed use of facial recognition technology via ICO proactive audit (executive summary published 2025-2026), one of five forces audited alongside Gwent Police, Essex Police, West Yorkshire Police and Greater Manchester Police. The ICO's blog covers both live and retrospective facial recognition without breaking down which variant each force uses; the ICO's statement of 17 March 2026 settles it for Leicestershire, as described in the update below. 107 recommendations were made across the five forces; all accepted or partially accepted. Four areas flagged as needing urgent attention: senior oversight/accountability/training; record-keeping on what data is used and shared; ensuring retrospective FR images come from appropriate sources and aren't over-retained; and checking systems for accuracy/bias. A final audit of the Metropolitan Police is scheduled for later in 2026.

Update, November 2026. The ICO's blog of 17 March 2026, on its audits of Essex Police and Leicestershire Police, states that it audited use of retrospective facial recognition at Leicestershire Police, as live facial recognition was not being used at that time. UKAuthority (26 March 2026) likewise reports that the force was using retrospective facial recognition at the time of the audit and is implementing the ICO's recommendations. No rating or number of recommendations for the force is recorded here. This record is therefore corrected to retrospective facial recognition, and 'since 2025', which was the audit date rather than a start date, is cleared. Police Professional (30 July 2014) reported that Leicestershire was the first UK force to evaluate NEC's NeoFace, in a six-month trial from April 2014 comparing images against the force's photograph database; that report does not say which system the force uses now. Separately, the Home Office factsheet (published 4 December 2025) lists Leicestershire among 13 forces that 'have used or are using' live facial recognition. The only live use found is at the Download Festival in June 2015, which Engadget (17 June 2015) reported with force quotes as scanning festival-goers' faces against a list of known offenders; a force FOI response of 17 May 2021 states that it did 'not currently utilise live facial recognition'. That earlier live use is recorded as a separate record.

Update, November 2026. NEC Software Solutions publishes a case study (undated; page last modified 1 October 2026; a supplier document, so a company claim) saying Leicestershire Police's Identification Unit uploads custody images to NEC facial recognition software and runs images of suspects captured on camera against them, that officers review results and decide whether a match is valid, and that the unit has used facial recognition since 2014. It quotes the force's Head of ID and Custody saying 'Now with facial recognition technology a suspect can be identified within minutes', and describes an assault case in which retrospective matching led to three arrests. A force response of 28 May 2021 (reference 1495/21) states: 'Leicestershire Police do not use Live Facial Recognition' and that all officers using retrospective facial recognition have completed unconscious bias training. The vendor and start year are filled from the NEC case study and the 2014 Police Professional report of the NeoFace trial; the force's own pages were not found to name the supplier.