{"id":"AIBD-1059","title":"NPL finds for the Home Office that the Police National Database's Cognitec face search algorithm ranked the right person first in 3510 of 3513 tests","summary":"NPL found that the Cognitec algorithm that police use on the Police National Database ranked the right person first in 3510 of 3513 test searches. False matches varied by ethnicity, gender and age.","date_observed":"2025-12-04","date_basis":"source publication","date_precision":"day","benefit_status":"mixed","source_collection":null,"source_entry":null,"account":"The Home Office and the Office of the Policing Chief Scientific Adviser commissioned the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to test Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5. The Home Office says that police run about 25,000 searches a month with it on the Police National Database. NPL tested it on the Metropolitan Police Service's Equitability Study Dataset, with about 180,000 reference images. The Home Office published the report on 4 December 2025. With no threshold, the top match was the correct person in 3510 of 3513 searches for people in the database. At a face-match threshold of 0.9, there were no false positives, and 91.9% of those searches returned the right person. At 0.8, false matches for people not in the database came in 0.04% of searches for White subjects, 4.0% for Asian and 5.5% for Black subjects. They came in 0.4% of searches for Black male and 9.9% for Black female subjects. NPL found that the gaps from White subjects and between Black male and female subjects were statistically significant. NPL did not test the officers' review of candidates.","category":"aggregate result","unexpected":false,"purpose":"Cognitec Systems built FaceVACS-DBScan ID to compare a face image of an unknown person with a database of reference images and return the closest candidates.","system":"Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID, the retrospective facial recognition algorithm of the Police National Database","model_version":"v5.5","developer":"Cognitec Systems","deployer":"Home Office, which provides the Police National Database with the National Police Chiefs' Council, for searches by police forces and law enforcement agencies","location":"United Kingdom","domain":"Policing","segment":null,"benefit_type":"Improved Task Accuracy","work_activities":["4.A.1.b.1","4.A.2.a.2"],"taxonomy_note":null,"registry_ids":{},"ratings":[{"group":"organizational","depth":null,"reason":"NPL measured the algorithm on a test dataset, and no outcome of police searches is reported."}],"ai_role":{"status":"unassessed","statement":"NPL measured the algorithm's own output, before the review by officers that police require. It made no comparison with identification without the algorithm. The report does not say whether the algorithm learns from data. Cognitec writes that its products incorporate deep learning, without naming a version."},"evidence":[{"kind":"evaluation report","citation":"National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Data Science and AI Department. Report 4153: Facial Recognition Technologies: Accuracy and Equitability Evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5. Report for the Home Office and the Office of the Policing Chief Scientific Adviser, October 2025, published on GOV.UK on 4 December 2025. Section 1.2.1, Recognition accuracy.","title":"Facial Recognition Technologies: Accuracy and Equitability Evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5","url":"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/693002a4cdec734f4dff4149/1a_Cognitec_NPL_Equitability_Report_October_25.pdf","date":"2025-12-04","written_by":"evaluator","quote":"On this image set, with no thresholding applied, identification performance was nearly perfect (i.e. a TPIR of nearly 100 %). Of the 3513 mated identification searches the top match returned by the algorithm was the correct reference in 3510 cases."},{"kind":"evaluation report","citation":"National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Data Science and AI Department. Report 4153: Facial Recognition Technologies: Accuracy and Equitability Evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5. Report for the Home Office and the Office of the Policing Chief Scientific Adviser, October 2025, published on GOV.UK on 4 December 2025. Section 1.2.2, Demographic variation in TPIR and FPIR, at a face-match threshold of 0.8.","title":"Facial Recognition Technologies: Accuracy and Equitability Evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5","url":"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/693002a4cdec734f4dff4149/1a_Cognitec_NPL_Equitability_Report_October_25.pdf","date":"2025-12-04","written_by":"evaluator","quote":"The FPIR for White subjects (0.04 %) is lower than that for Asian subjects (4.0 %) and Black subjects (5.5 %). • The FPIR for Black Male subjects (0.4 %) is lower than that for Black Female subjects (9.9 %).","supports_benefit":false},{"kind":"report","citation":"Home Office. Summary: accuracy and equitability evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5. GOV.UK, 4 December 2025. Section 'What is the Police National Database?'. It gives the scale of use.","title":"Summary: accuracy and equitability evaluation of Cognitec FaceVACS-DBScan ID v5.5","url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/facial-recognition-technology-tests-national-physical-laboratory/summary-accuracy-and-equitability-evaluation-of-cognitec-facevacs-dbscan-id-v55","date":"2025-12-04","written_by":"deployer","quote":"Police use a Cognitec algorithm procured by the Home Office. Forces and law enforcement agencies conduct around 25,000 searches each month.","supports_benefit":false},{"kind":"other","citation":"Cognitec Systems. FaceVACS Technology. Product page, accessed 31 October 2026. It describes the technologies in Cognitec's products.","title":"FaceVACS Technology","url":"https://www.cognitec.com/technology.html","date":null,"written_by":"makers","quote":"Cognitec's products incorporate state-of-the-art technologies relevant to working with facial images, in particular deep learning, computer vision, and pattern recognition technologies.","supports_benefit":false}],"replication":{"produced_by":["NPL ran 3513 searches for people in the database and 3914 for people who were not, against about 180,000 reference images.","The reference images were custody photos from Metropolitan Police Service holdings and a custody-style photo of each of the 401 cohort subjects.","The probe images were custody-style, smartphone, ad hoc camera and selfie photos of the cohort subjects."],"must_hold":["The face-match threshold may need tuning to the quality of the probe images in each use case.","Users and investigators must review the search results visually and corroborate any match before they act on it."],"echoes":[]},"paired_incident":null,"headline":"*FaceVACS-DBScan ID* ranks the right face first in 3510 of 3513 searches","metric":"the right person first in 3510 of 3513 test searches","comparator":null,"later":{"status":"challenged","date":"2025-12-04","note":"The Home Office reports that it acted on the findings. 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