For the second time in five days, the Met deployed live facial recognition technology in Croydon resulting in eight people being arrested.

This action from officers on Tuesday, 23 January is a direct result of listening to community concerns about serious violence and other issues like theft and criminal damage in the Croydon area.

Live facial recognition technology is used in order to be more precise in how we tackle crime and identify wanted offenders. It assists the Met in targeting people who are most responsible for causing serious violence.

As a result, eight people were arrested for the following:

• A 25-year-old woman for failing to appear at court for the offence of criminal damage;
• A 21-year-old man for failing to appear at court for theft;
• A 23-year-old man for failing to appear at court for theft;
• A 26-year-old man for failing to appear at court for theft from motor vehicle;
• A 39-year-old man for failing to appear for drugs-related offences;
• A 32-year-old man wanted for failing to appear for theft;
• A 21-year-old man wanted on a recall to prison for the offence of burglary;
• A 23-year-old man wanted for breach of tag conditions.

Lindsey Chiswick, responsible for live facial recognition in the Met, said: “As part of our commitment to deliver a better service for communities we are listening to local feedback and deploying this technology to local areas to tackle crime. Identifying harmful criminals has always been a fundamental part of policing, but we are adapting this with the assistance of technology. Where there is no match, all images are immediately and automatically destroyed. Live facial recognition technology allows us to more efficiently identify offenders and reduce harmful criminality on our streets.”

Chief Superintendent Andy Brittain, who leads policing in Croydon, said: “We hope people in Croydon who have shared concerns about crime in their area can see how we are using a range of tools to help reduce this. Officers have made 13 arrests using live facial recognition during the last two deployments in Croydon covering a range of offences. Local officers have been supporting the deployments to inform residents about how we are using this.”

Ahead of the deployment police upload images of criminals who are wanted onto a database. The technology in real-time scans people’s faces who are walking through an area to see if there is a match