How does watchlist size differ between police and private-sector face-recognition deployments?

Police lists scale with the mission — from ~50–500 for event protection up to 10,000+ for border control — while private lists are smaller and geographically local (e.g. 20–200 known shoplifters per store).

Police deployments:

• Event protection: 50–500 people (known troublemakers, wanted persons)
• Manhunts/investigations: 100–2,000 (regional to national lists)
• Border control: up to 10,000+ (international wanted lists)

Private sector (typically geographically limited):

• Retail: 20–200 people per branch (known shoplifters)
• Shopping centres: 100–500 (regionally coordinated lists)
• Event venues: 50–300 (banned persons, security risks)

Larger watchlists exponentially increase the probability of false positives and demand more compute.

Tip: False-positive risk grows with list size, so a giant watchlist isn't "more secure" — it can flood operators with false alerts, degrading the system's real-world usefulness.