The Metropolitan Police Service has reported making 1,035 arrests using Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology since the beginning of 2024, including 93 registered sex offenders. This marks a significant rise compared to about 540 arrests recorded during 2024, which resulted in 406 individuals being charged or cautioned, up from far smaller totals in prior years.
According to the Met, these 1,035 arrests so far in 2024 have led to 773 charges or cautions, with over 100 cases involving serious violence against women and girls (VAWG) offences, including strangulation, stalking, domestic abuse, and rape. The police emphasize that the technology is helping identify suspects in real time, allowing officers to act quickly in busy public spaces where manual identification would be challenging.
“This milestone of 1,000 arrests is a demonstration of how cutting-edge technology can make London safer by removing dangerous offenders from our streets,” said Lindsey Chiswick, who leads the Met’s LFR programme. “Live Facial Recognition is a powerful tool, which is helping us deliver justice for victims, including those who have been subjected to horrendous offences, such as rape and serious assault.”
The deployment of LFR comes amid continued discussions about potential new legislation governing police use of facial recognition and ongoing debates over oversight of biometric surveillance. While the technology has raised privacy concerns from civil liberties groups, the Met maintains that its systems are designed to target individuals already wanted for offences and do not indiscriminately scan the public.
Independent testing conducted by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory in 2023 found no statistically significant differences in performance across ethnic or gender groups when using the NEC NeoFace algorithm at the Met’s default operating threshold of 0.6. This finding has been cited by the Met as evidence that the system does not disproportionately impact any specific demographic group.
Following the Met’s experience, other UK police forces are evaluating the technology’s potential. Suffolk Police launched its own trial of LFR in Ipswich town centre earlier this year, reporting several arrests during initial deployments. This indicates a broader interest among law enforcement agencies across Britain in exploring biometric tools to support policing objectives.
The Met also highlights that LFR has been particularly effective in identifying individuals breaching bail conditions, reducing the resources required for more traditional methods of tracking suspects. Officers suggest that many of those apprehended through LFR might otherwise have evaded detection, posing ongoing risks to public safety.
Sources: Evening Standard, Police Professional, Metropolitan Police News
–
By Ali Nassar-Smith
