British police forces have been issued interim guidance by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing that encourages them to release a suspect’s ethnicity and nationality when charges are brought in high-profile or sensitive cases. The measure is designed to curb misinformation that can spread rapidly on social media and follows riots last year that were blamed on false online claims about a suspect’s background. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said the move would make forces “as open as possible”, while Deputy Chief Constable Sam de Reya argued that filling information vacuums is “good police work”. The guidance is advisory, leaving chief constables to decide case by case, and has prompted warnings from former senior officers that public expectations for disclosure could outstrip what forces are prepared to provide. Separately, the Home Office is funding 10 additional live facial-recognition vans to be shared among seven forces including Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, roughly doubling the fleet. The technology was credited with 580 arrests in London over the past year—52 involving registered sex offenders—but civil-liberties groups Big Brother Watch and Liberty said the expanded deployment risks entrenching a “surveillance state” without clear legislative safeguards.