Over 100 wanted criminals were arrested in the first months of a pilot programme in South London, in which live facial recognition (LFR) cameras were mounted onto street furniture.
The cameras were fixed to structures like lampposts in Croydon instead of mobile vans, and mapped people unique facial features against faces on watch lists.
It led to 103 arrests and the Met said there was just one false alert.
Among those arrested were a 27-year-old man wanted on suspicion of kidnap and a 37-year-old registered sex offender in breach of a sexual harm prevention order for having an unregistered mobile phone and access to social media. As well as a 36-year-old woman, who police said was wanted since 2004, for failing to appear at court on suspicion of assault.
The Met said a third of the 103 arrests involved offences against women and girls, including strangulation and sexual assault.
This announcement on the success of the Croydon pilot comes just days ahead of a High Court challenge against the Met’s use of the technology.
Next week, Big Brother Watch is taking on the case of a 39-year-old man who was wrongly identified by LFR and stopped by police in February 2024 outside London Bridge station.
He said officers had asked him for his fingerprints, but he refused, and he was let go only after about 30 minutes, having shown them a photo of his passport.
He previously described LFR as “stop and search on steroids”.
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The UK’s equality regulator, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has been granted permission to intervene in the judicial review and have said the Met’s current use has breached human rights law.
However, the Met are confident the use of LFR is lawful and proportionate.
The Croydon pilot involved 15 fixed cameras, attached to lamp posts, at two sides of North End high street.
The police said the cameras were only switched on when officers were deployed, which took place 13 times over the three-month trial, and insisted that any biometric data from members of the public who are not wanted by the police was immediately and permanently deleted.
The overall crime figures in the Fairfield ward, where the pilot was held, fell by 12 per cent, with shoplifting and robbery being highlighted as area in which they saw particular success.
Lindsey Chiswick, the Met and national lead for live facial recognition, said: “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.
“This is why we are trialling a new and innovative pilot in Croydon. It allows us to explore a different way of using facial recognition by operating it remotely and more efficiently.
“The amount of arrests we have made in just 13 deployments shows the technology is already making an impact and helping to make Croydon safer.
“Public support remains strong, with 85 per cent of Londoners backing the use of LFR to keep them safe.”
Mobile van deployments of LFR were used at the King’s coronation in 2023, after an Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur match last year, as well as at the entrances and exits to Notting Hill Carnival last summer.
The Met has said they use an LFR algorithm that does not exhibit bias and has been tested by the National Physical Laboratory. This came after claims that LFR is “less accurate for women and people of colour”. And the Met added that Croydon was chosen for the pilot because it was a “crime hotspot” and because there was “local support” for it, after objections were raised that the area was targeted because it has a higher proportion of black residents (22.6%) compared to London as a whole (13.5%).
The pilot will now undergo an evaluation to assess its effectiveness. But the Met have pointed out that was little doubt it made arrests faster, saying the average time to locate wanted individuals has reduced by more than 50% compared with van-based deployments, which they added are then freed up for use elsewhere, expanding the police’s overall LFR capability.
They have also pointed out that LFR were of course significantly quicker at locating wanted offenders then normal police tactics such as door-to-door enquiries.
They say they will continue to run engagement sessions with Croydon residents and councillors to explain how LFR works, outline the intelligence-led approach behind deployments, and set out the safeguards in place to protect privacy and rights.
However, Scotland Yard have made it clear that there are currently no plans to extend the pilot to other areas.
