Met Police tout arrests, crime drop from permanent LFR camera pilot

The London police have published the results of the UK’s first permanent live facial recognition (LFR) test: During the six-month pilot, the static LFR camera system contributed to more than 170 arrests, while crime in the area fell 10.5 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Metropolitan Police. 

Unlike previous deployments that used mobile vans, cameras were installed on lampposts or buildings. The system was set up in Croydon, one of the most targeted areas for facial recognition deployments in London, with the pilot running from October 2025 to March 2026.

Police officers made 173 arrests in 24 separate operations, the equivalent of one arrest every 35 minutes. Among the arrested were suspects wanted for kidnap, rape and serious sexual assault.

“These results show why live facial recognition is such a powerful tool when it’s used carefully, openly and in the right places,” Lindsey Chiswick, national and Met LFR lead, said in a statement. 

The Met Police use NEC Corporation‘s Neoface live facial recognition algorithm. The biometric software has been tested by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and Met Police claimed the study found no statistically significant bias, though that analysis has been disputed.

Croydon was selected because of high crime rates and prior LFR deployments. Police said more than 60 percent of those arrested committed their offenses in Croydon, indicating static LFR may help target high-crime areas.

In January London police credited facial recognition technology for the city’s record-low murder rates.

“We will continue using static cameras in Croydon as part of our regular live facial recognition deployments, which play a vital part in keeping London safe,” adds Chiswick.

The LFR cameras scanned the faces of 470,000 people, compared them against a predetermined database, and deleted the facial images if no match was found. During the testing period, the police recorded one false alert with no wrongful arrests.

The false-alert rate is likely to draw scrutiny as the Met continues to face criticism over misidentifications. One case was brought by anti-knife crime community worker Shaun Thompson, who was misidentified by the system and detained by police in 2024, with the help of advocacy group Big Brother Watch. In their challenge, the duo claimed that LFR breaches privacy rights outlined in the European Convention of Human Rights, with Thompson describing the technology as “stop and search on steroids.”

In April, the High Court in London ruled that the Met Police did not breach human rights and privacy laws by scanning faces in public, allowing them to continue using the technology.

More LFR deployments are expected across the UK as part of a large-scale policing reform. The government has pledged to fund 40 new LFR vans as part of a national program to expand facial recognition capabilities in town centers across England and Wales, as well as to consider making images from the national passport and driver’s license databases available to police.

Article Topics

biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  law enforcement  |  live facial recognition  |  London Metropolitan Police  |  NEC  |  NeoFace