In response to growing concerns about street violence in Croydon, the Metropolitan Police have initiated various operations to address this issue, one of which includes the deployment of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology. On Friday afternoon, 19 January, the LFR system was used in Croydon, leading to the arrest of several individuals.
The primary aim of these efforts is to reduce serious violence in the Croydon area, and the use of LFR has proven instrumental in achieving this goal. During the deployment of this technology, five arrests were made, targeting individuals who were wanted for various criminal offences.
The arrests made through LFR include:
- A 32-year-old woman who failed to appear at court for burglary.
- A 50-year-old man who failed to comply with his conditions as a Registered Sex Offender.
- A 34-year-old man wanted by the police for robbery.
- A 36-year-old individual wanted by the court for offences related to animal cruelty.
- A 31-year-old woman was wanted for failing to appear at court for drink drive-related offences.
Live Facial Recognition technology operates by scanning the faces of individuals passing through a designated area and comparing them against a watchlist of individuals wanted by the police. When a match is identified, an alert is triggered, and an officer will then review the match to determine if further action is necessary.
Lindsey Chiswick, who oversees LFR for the Met, stated, “As part of our commitment to building A New Met For London, we are using this technology to identify harmful criminals. Trying to identify people who are wanted by the police is not new. LFR does what the police have always done but with much more accuracy, precision, and speed. If there is no match, all biometric details are immediately destroyed.”
The Metropolitan Police actively communicate each LFR deployment in the local area before the technology is put into operation. Local neighbourhood officers and informational leaflets are used to explain the benefits of the technology while it is active.
The Met will continue to share information throughout the week on how they are listening to local communities and collaborating with others to address community concerns effectively.
