Report reveals Live Facial Recognition technology is making London safer
An annual report shows 962 arrests have been made through LFR within the space of a year
A new annual report into the Met's use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology has been revealed to be making London safer.
The Metropolitan Police use the tool to help arrest people in the capital, who are wanted by police or the courts. It also helps officers identify offenders who were in breach of court-imposed conditions, such as sex offenders or stalkers.
The report reveals 962 arrests were made between September 2024 and September 2025, thanks to LFR, with over a quarter of these arrests for people involved in violence against women and girls.
That included those suspected of rape, strangulation and domestic abuse.
The total number of LFR arrests is over 1400, which has resulted in more than 1,000 charges or cautions.
The report also highlights that public support for LFR "remains strong", with 85% of Londoners backing the use of the technology to help keep them safe.
It's also thought to be increasing trust in the Met, with 74% of people in the Capital now trusting the force.
Another benefit of the system, according to the report, is that nobody has been arrested on the back of a false alert. Four out of 10 people falsely alerted by the system were not stopped at all.
The system deletes the information immediately, if someone walks past an LFR camera, and are not wanted by the police.
A powerful and game-changing tool
Lindsey Chiswick, the lead for LFR at the Met and nationally, said:
“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.
“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.”