High Court Backs UK Police Use of Live Facial Recognition Technology

The High Court of Justice upheld the Metropolitan Police's Live Facial Recognition Policy on April 21, 2026, rejecting a judicial review brought by civil liberties campaigners who argued the policy allowed excessive discretion and risked violating ECHR protections for privacy, expression, and assembly. The court found the policy includes defined deployment scenarios, proportionality assessments, oversight, and safeguards like immediate deletion of non-matching data and human review of alerts, and it dismissed much of the claimants' evidence as insufficient to show illegality; discrimination claims were not found to be properly presented. The ruling is expected to influence future use and regulation of biometric surveillance in the UK as the government considers expanding deployment.