London police says facial recognition contributed to murder rate drop

Police forces across the UK are showcasing improved arrest statistics resulting from the use of live facial recognition (LFR) systems. The London Metropolitan Police says that the technology is also contributing to the city’s record-low murder rates.

London had 97 murders in 2025, which is the lowest per capita rate that the UK capital, with a population of 9 million, has ever had. The result was a combination of the police’s skills in solving murder and cracking down on organized crime and innovations such as facial recognition, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said last Saturday.

The Met police arrested 1,135 people in 2025 as a result of using the technology. The law enforcement agency is relying on both retrospective and live facial recognition.

LFR deployments have primarily been on mobile vans fitted with cameras, which match faces of passersby with a watchlist of wanted offenders and people on court orders, such as registered sex offenders.

“We’re routinely finding that in a two-hour operation in a high crime, high footfall area, we might make 15 arrests,” says Rowley. “We deploy those vans in high footfall, high crime areas with a team of officers.”

Croydon pilot leads to one arrest every 34 minutes

One of these high-crime areas is the London Borough of Croydon. The Met Police says it arrested more than 100 wanted criminals within the first three months of piloting a permanent LFR system.

The pilot kicked off in October with police deploying LFR cameras mounted on lampposts and buildings 13 times so far. The cameras are only active when police officers are present.

Police in Croydon say that the permanent installations have led to more efficiency, with one arrest made on average every 34 minutes when in use. In the central ward of Fairfield, crime has dropped 12 percent.

Another benefit has been faster arrests: Wanted individuals are located 50 percent faster compared to mobile van deployments of LFR. Over the next few months, the pilot will be officially evaluated for effectiveness.

Overall, since the start of LFR tests in 2024, Croydon has recorded 249 arrests, with 193 individuals charged or cautioned.

Other parts of London are still seeing van-based deployments. Among them is Westminster, which has seen LFR deployments in popular tourist spots such as the West End, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden and more.

During 2025, more than one million faces were scanned in Westminster during 34 deployments, leading to 147 arrests, police told the Westminster Extra.

“The increase in LFR deployments across crime hotspots in London is driven by its proven impact and success – with more than 1,700 dangerous offenders taken off London’s streets since the start of 2024, including those wanted for rape and child abuse,” says Lindsay Chiswick, the Met Police and national lead for live facial recognition.

53,000 sign petition against LFR

Criticism of the technology, however, is still very much present, including from rights groups such as Big Brother Watch and lawmakers. Despite this, Met Police Commissioner Rowley believes that Brits support police use of LFR.

“Britain has had decades of quite high investment in CCTV, and people are used to that as an idea. So it’s not the first technology they’ve had on the streets,” he says.

The LFR system used by the Met Police has recorded only eight false identifications, of which four led to the individual being checked by the police. Around three million people have walked past the cameras since their deployment.

Another investment that the London police have made is communicating with the media.

“Almost every media outlet in the UK has come out at least once with these operations and done features on them,” says Rowley. “So we’ve worked hard to show that this isn’t Big Brother.”

According to a survey commissioned by the Home Office in January 2025, 64 percent of the population in England and Wales said they support police facial recognition to some degree. Only 11 percent were opposed to its use.

This attitude may be reflected in the results of an online petition to stop the Met Police from using live facial recognition surveillance, organized by Big Brother Watch. The petition has been signed by fewer than 54,000 people in the last five years.

Rowley also shared that the Met Police is testing a new drone program in the center of London, which is designed to react to incidents before first responders can arrive and stream live footage from the scene.

LFR deployments continue in Sussex and Surrey

Areas outside of London are also continuing LFR deployments, including Sussex and Surrey counties.

Sussex Police said last week that the technology has been “100 percent” accurate since its introduction, with no false positives. The police force received 61 alerts during the past three months, all of which correctly identified a person on a watchlist, the BBC reports.

Sussex saw its eighth deployment of an LFR van last week, with police making two arrests thanks to the technology. The Sussex police have scanned 180,000 faces across the county, generating 61 alerts.

The deployment is a part of a nationwide police action against crime and social behavior called Winter of Action, and also includes increases in police patrols. Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex Katy Bourne says that areas which have been monitored with LFR recorded a nearly 10 percent drop in offenses, the Argus reports.

UK police authorities expanded the LFR surveillance program last year to include Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire. Before that, the technology was tested by the London Metropolitan Police, South Wales Police and Essex Police.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  live facial recognition  |  London Metropolitan Police  |  police  |  real-time biometrics