The Metropolitan Police Service have announced that a six-month live facial recognition pilot in Croydon, running October 2025 through March 2026, resulted in 173 arrests across 24 separate operations. The force also claims a 10.5 percent reduction in overall crime in the pilot area compared to the same period the previous year, along with a 21 percent reduction in violence against women and girls offences.
The Croydon pilot was the Metropolitan Police’s first deployment of static live facial recognition cameras mounted on existing street infrastructure, specifically lampposts at two locations at the north and south ends of Croydon high street, rather than deploying the technology from specialist police vans as in prior operations. Cameras were activated only during active deployments, with specialist officers and neighborhood policing teams present throughout. The force reported that more than 470,000 people passed the cameras during the pilot period, during which there was one false alert. The individual in question was briefly stopped, then released after officers identified the alert as incorrect. The Metropolitan Police stated no one has ever been arrested as a result of a false alert from live facial recognition.
Among the 173 arrests were suspects wanted for kidnap, rape, serious sexual assault, and breaches of court-imposed conditions. Thirty-seven arrests were for breaching court-imposed conditions. The force stated that 61 percent of the offences linked to live facial recognition-assisted arrests had been committed in Croydon. Bespoke watchlists were created within 24 hours of each deployment and deleted immediately afterward per force policy.
The 10.5 percent crime reduction figure is the Metropolitan Police’s own claim. The pilot did not include a control group, and multiple confounding factors, including seasonal variation, policing activity unrelated to live facial recognition, and local socioeconomic changes, could account for part or all of the observed reduction. Police Professional magazine reported the statistic with the attribution “MPS claims” rather than as established fact.
Lindsey Chiswick, the Metropolitan Police’s Director of Intelligence and National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Live Facial Recognition, said: “These results show why live facial recognition is such a powerful tool when it’s used carefully, openly and in the right places.” Big Brother Watch has raised ongoing concerns about the expansion of permanent static live facial recognition infrastructure, privacy, proportionality, and the adequacy of oversight as deployments scale.
The Croydon results are the first operational outcome from the Met’s first permanent facial recognition cameras, announced in March of last year. They confirm the trajectory reported in the Croydon pilot’s interim results from January 2026, and arrive following the High Court’s ruling upholding Met LFR policy in April 2026.
Sources: Metropolitan Police Service, Police Professional, Engineering and Technology Magazine
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
