Report outlines case for coordinated expansion of live facial recognition
15/10/2025 | Police Professional
A new report by the policing consultancy Leapwise Advisory reveals that the police use of live facial recognition (LFR) has dramatically increased and become significantly more accurate. According to data collected up to late September this year, the report shows that 76% of all 613 LFR deployments since 2015 occurred in 2024 and 2025 alone, during which over 10 million faces were scanned. In total, LFR deployments have scanned 13.3 million faces.
LFR has resulted in 2,655 instances of enforcement action, including 1,343 arrests by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Accuracy has improved, with true alerts outnumbering false ones every year since 2022. Deployments at the 2025 Notting Hill Carnival saw 96 out of 98 alerts being accurate.
With the Home Office backing a nationwide expansion, the report recommends a national LFR coordination capability, including a full-time leader, to ensure consistency and establish a single legal framework for police use of biometrics. In addition, the report calls for stronger national direction on LFR deployment, including determining mandatory training requirements and developing guidelines for the auto-deletion of images of non-wanted individuals that all forces must follow.
A comprehensive legal framework for police use of biometrics in line with Home Office plans should also be developed.
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