Canada, Alberta
Edmonton Police Service
AI Facial Recognition Body-Worn Cameras, supplied by Axon (camera hardware) with Corsight AI (facial recognition model)
TrialJournalismPAI-F03FD0BF
- Body
- Edmonton Police Service
- Country
- Canada
- Area
- Alberta
- Technology
- AI Facial Recognition Body-Worn Cameras
- Supplier
- Axon (camera hardware) with Corsight AI (facial recognition model)
- Status
- Trial
Being tested in live conditions under a time-limited pilot or trial. - Stage
- In use now
- Since
- 2025
- Legal basis
- No dedicated statutory framework. A privacy impact assessment was submitted to Alberta's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
- Oversight
- Edmonton Police Commission and the chief's committee, reviewing pilot results as of the time of writing
- Evidence
- Journalism
Named reporting by a reputable outlet - Source
- CBC News (Freedom of Information documents), Associated Press, Biometric Update
- Last checked
- Record code
PAI-F03FD0BF
Notes
The first Canadian police service, and among the first anywhere, to trial facial recognition built into body-worn cameras rather than fixed or handheld devices. Axon supplied the camera hardware and Israeli firm Corsight AI the facial recognition model.
The pilot ran through December 2025 and was extended roughly three weeks into January 2026 following a system outage. Officers' cameras ran the software in what EPS calls silent mode, checking faces against a watchlist of people with outstanding warrants for serious offences or flagged as high risk, reported variously as roughly 6,341 and 7,000 people, without alerting the wearing officer to a match; footage was reviewed afterwards by trained staff.
Status note: the pilot itself concluded in January 2026 and results were with the Edmonton Police Commission and the chief's committee for review. This entry is deliberately held at trial rather than moved to discontinued, because a concluded pilot awaiting a decision is not the same as a technology that has been abandoned, and no decision either way has been published. Two independent research passes reached opposite conclusions on how to classify it, which is itself a reason to record the underlying facts and let the status follow a documented decision rather than an inference.
A researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab described it as the most high-risk algorithmic surveillance program she had observed in Canada to date. Corsight AI's technology has reportedly been used for mass surveillance in Gaza, and the firm also supplies Essex Police in England. Axon's own AI ethics board recommended in 2019 that the company not pursue facial recognition on body cameras.