Met Police gets first permanent facial recognition cameras in London, sparking fears of 'dystopian nightmare'
24 March 2025, 06:28
Police are setting up London's first permanent facial recognition cameras, despite privacy fears.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The live facial recognition (LFR) cameras, which are intended to make fighting crime easier by identifying criminal suspects faster, will be set up in Croydon, in south London.
Police have already been using mobile facial recognition cameras in vans, which can be deployed anywhere in the city. Hundreds of suspects are said to have been arrested during the years the vans have been running.
The technology works by scanning faces and matching them to a database of criminals. Anyone who is not a match is deleted.
The new cameras will be attached to lampposts or buildings and will only run when officers are available to match scans on the database.
Read more: Want to balance the Met's books, commissioner? Ditch facial recognition
Mitch Carr, the Met’s neighbourhood policing chief for south London, wrote to local leaders in Croydon: "I am currently working with the central team to install fixed LFR cameras in Croydon town centre.
"This will mean our use of LFR technology will be far more embedded as a ‘business as usual’ approach rather than relying on the availability of the LFR vans that are in high demand across London.
“It will remain the case that the cameras are only switched on when officers are deployed on the ground ready to respond to alerts.
"The end result will see cameras covering a defined area and will give us much more flexibility around the days and times we can run the operations.”
Some campaigners have called the move "dystopian".
Rebecca Vincent of anti-police oversight group Big Brother Watch, said: "We are alarmed by reports that Croydon police are installing an unprecedented permanent network of fixed live facial recognition cameras across Croydon town centre, which marks a worrying escalation in the use of LFR with no oversight or legislative basis.
“It’s time to stop this steady slide into a dystopian nightmare and halt all use of LFR technology across the UK until legislative safeguards are introduced.”
Ali Miraj says facial recognition cameras could be a 'complete game changer' in tackling crime
Chris Philp, who is the Shadow Home Secretary and the Conservative MP for Croydon South, told the Times that using fixed LFR cameras is "the logical next step in the roll-out of this technology" and would "ensure even more wanted criminals get caught."
He added: “Over the past year the mobile vans have caught around 200 wanted criminals in Croydon including at least two rapists who would not otherwise have been caught. Those few people opposing this technology need to explain why they don’t want those wanted criminals to be arrested."
He claimed there were "no legitimate privacy concerns" as images of anyone not wanted by police are automatically deleted.
"This technology has the potential to revolutionise crime fighting in the same way that fingerprints and DNA have in the past," Mr Philp added.
“I would strongly support this initiative in Croydon and more widely as well.”
Chris Philp on live facial recognition cameras
The Met said: “The Met is committed to making London safer, using data and technology to identify offenders that pose a risk to our communities.
“Last year we made over 500 arrests using LFR, removing dangerous individuals who were suspected of serious offences, including strangulation, stalking, domestic abuse and rape.
“We continue to engage with our communities to build understanding about how this technology works, providing reassurances that there are rigorous checks and balances in place to protect people’s rights and privacy.”
