Live facial recognition technology to be used by WA Police in Australian first Fri 19 Jun 2026 at 1:54pm In short: A marked police van will be used outside major events or in crowded areas to live scan the faces of people walking past, in an Australian first. The faces of people will be matched against a database of people with outstanding arrest warrants and registered child sex offenders, as well as missing persons. What's next? While the trial only includes one marked van, the police commissioner is not ruling out further covert technology being used in the future, including at protests. Western Australia will become the first place in the country where police will trial real-time facial recognition cameras, scanning crowds for people wanted by police, registered child sex offenders and missing persons. The cameras, which will be deployed in a marked police van outside major events or in crowded areas, will scan faces to be cross referenced with a database of targets. Police Commissioner Col Blanch said that database will contain about 4,000 people with outstanding arrest warrants and thousands of registered child sex offenders, as well as people reported missing. The commissioner said signs alerting the public to the cameras would be clearly visible. "This is not about mass surveillance,"he said. "This is about specifying those in our community who are wanted by police." If the technology detects a match, the image will be retained and an alert sent to nearby officers to confirm the person's identity. 'Increased freedoms and privacy' Commissioner Blanch said while his force had used facial recognition technology on already obtained footage for more than a decade, it was the first time in Australia police had used live feeds for almost-instant facial detection. He sought to quell concerns about potential breaches of privacy.