More than 1000 criminals arrested in London using live facial recognition

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has announced it has made 1035 arrests in London using Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology. Among those arrested include individuals wanted for paedophilia, rape, violent robbery, and serious violence against women and girls. Out of those arrested, 773 have been charged or cautioned, supporting MPS' claims about the technology's effectiveness in apprehending offenders who might otherwise remain at large and consume significant police resources.

LFR deployments involve a dedicated team and neighbourhood officers to interact with flagged individuals and make arrests. Beyond identifying wanted criminals, LFR is also used to stop individuals on watchlists with court-imposed conditions, such as registered sex offenders, ensuring compliance and enhancing community safety. The ability of LFR technology to detect such breaches, which might otherwise go unnoticed, is considered a revolutionary policing method, with a 21% detection rate for condition breaches in London. Lindsey Chiswick, LFR lead at the MPS, said: "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."

In a statement responding to the news, Madeleine Stone, Senior Advocacy Officer at the digital rights advocacy group Big Brother Watch, said: "Facial recognition technology remains dangerously unregulated in the UK, meaning police forces are writing their own rules about how they use the technology and who they place on watchlists. This is an authoritarian technology that can have life-changing consequences when it makes mistakes, yet neither the public nor parliament has ever voted on it.

"Arrests made with the technology represent just 0.15% of all arrests made in the capital during that time, despite significant police resources being ploughed into its expansion. Policing resources are threadbare in London, and with many serious crimes not even being investigated, spending millions of pounds on rights-abusing technology is an insult to Londoners. The expansion of facial recognition technology comes at a serious cost to the taxpayer, to our civil liberties, and to stretched policing resources.