Nine people arrested after Live Facial Recognition deployment

As part of our ongoing pledge to listen and tackle crime within communities across London, nine people in Romford and Woolwich were arrested by officers with the assistance of Live Facial Recognition technology.

This precision technology is being deployed in boroughs across London to help officers identify those who are wanted by the courts and police, and to ensure people with conditions issued by the courts are complying with them.

Arrests made by officers in Romford and Woolwich included breaching Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, breaching court orders, cruelty to children and aggravated burglary.

Live Facial Recognition technology assesses a person who walks through a certain area against a bespoke watchlist. If a match is made an alert will be sent to officers to review the image and speak with that person.

Anyone who is not identified as being on the watchlist has their image automatically deleted by the technology within seconds.