The Metropolitan Police’s Live Facial Recognition (LFR) cameras have led to 1,400 people being arrested since their introduction, with more than 3 million faces examined in the past year.
This technology scans and analyses the faces of passers-by, using AI-assisted computer vision to compare facial biometric data to a watchlist held by the police.
In a report published by the Met, Director of Performance Lindsey Chiswick said that since the launch of the LFR technology, deployments have taken place across London, with 85% of the city’s residents supporting the rollout.
From 11 September 2024 to 10 September 2025 alone, 962 people were arrested thanks to the deployment of LFR cameras, none of which were found to be false positives.
Over this time, a total of 3,147,436 faces were examined by the LFR cameras, equivalent to around one-third of London’s estimated population.
2,067 true alerts were recorded over the period, which also led to 1,084 engagements with public protection nominals and those subject to court orders such as stalking protection orders.
‘Breathtaking risk to public privacy’
UK privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch labelled the LFR scheme a mass surveillance operation, noting that no law exists in the UK to govern this practice.
“It is alarming that over 3 million people have been scanned with police facial recognition cameras in the past year in London alone,” said Big Brother Watch Legal and Policy Officer Jasleen Chaggar.
“Live facial recognition is a mass surveillance tool that risks making London feel like an open prison, and the prospect of the Met expanding facial recognition even more across the city is disproportionate and chilling.”
“We all want police to have the tools they need to cut crime but this is an Orwellian and authoritarian technology that treats millions of innocent people like suspects and risks serious injustice,” Chaggar said.
“No law in this country has ever been passed to govern live facial recognition and given the breathtaking risk to the public’s privacy, it is long overdue that the government stops its use to account for its serious risks.”
The Met states that its technology preserves the privacy of Londoners who are not wanted by the police.
When a member of the public is seen by an LFR camera and is not flagged, their biometric data is immediately deleted, the organisation said.
Scaling up LFR
LFR cameras were used at Notting Hill Carnival this year, where they led to 61 people being arrested and 30 registered sex offenders being stopped over the two days.
The Met said it would scale up its use of LFR cameras in the coming months, increasing deployments each week and assigning more officers and staff to support the initiative.
“We are proud of the results achieved with LFR. Our goal has always been to keep Londoners safe and improve the trust of our communities. Using this technology is helping us do exactly that,” Chiswick said.
“This is a powerful and game-changing tool, which is helping us to remove dangerous offenders from our streets and deliver justice for victims.”
“We remain committed to being transparent and engaging with communities about our use of LFR, to demonstrate we are using it fairly and without bias,” Chiswick added.
In August, the rollout of new LFR vans to police forces across the country was announced, signalling the government’s support for the technology’s effectiveness and the potential for its application outside of London.
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