Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed the deployment of its new Live Facial Recognition (LFR) vans in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens area marking the first operational use of the technology in this location. The force characterized the deployment as successful, resulting in two arrests of wanted individuals identified directly through biometric scanning.
The operation involved two specialized LFR vans funded by the Home Office as part of a national program equipping seven police forces with the technology. Each van uses cameras to scan faces in crowds and compare them in real time against a pre-prepared, bespoke watchlist of wanted persons or vulnerable individuals.
The system generated alerts for two men on the watchlist, leading to arrests: a 40-year-old man on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, and a 36-year-old man on suspicion of criminal damage (who also had a bail condition prohibiting him from entering Piccadilly Gardens). Supporting officers made four additional arrests for other offenses, including two for drug possession, one for failing to appear at court, and one for a public order offense.
Inspector Jon Middleton of the LFR Unit said the arrests show the value of live facial recognition when used alongside traditional policing methods, describing it as a valuable tool for faster, more accurate identification of wanted suspects.
GMP policy states that images and biometric data of individuals who are scanned but do not trigger a match are automatically and immediately deleted.
The deployment comes as GMP faces scrutiny over data handling, having received a formal reprimand from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office in June 2025 for shortcomings in CCTV practices. It is part of a broader UK expansion of live facial recognition technology, with the Metropolitan Police reporting over 1,000 arrests using LFR since early 2024; however, the technology remains controversial, with civil liberties groups and the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission warning that current deployments may breach fundamental rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly.
Sources: Greater Manchester Police, The Tab
—
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
