Morden Live Facial Recognition Operation Result - 17/3/2026

Morden Live Facial Recognition Operation Result - 17/3/2026

Dear all,

Re: Live Facial Recognition operation result.

On Tuesday 17th March 2026, Merton Safer Neighbourhoods Team ran a live facial recognition operation in Morden. I wanted to update you on the results.

Result:

Zero false alerts (false alerts are extremely rare).

Five positive alerts:

One arrest for failing to appear at court for the offence of burglary and for being wanted for breaching his domestic abuse protection order. He was presented to the court to answer for the offence of burglary and was charged with the offence of breaching his domestic abuse protection order.
Three alerts resulted in police engaging with high harm offenders, checking they are complying with court-imposed conditions and assisting in building our intelligence picture on these individuals.
One alert caused police to engage with a wanted female. After speaking to the officer in the case it was decided that she not be arrested and the crime closed.

Live Facial Recognition Key Points

Live facial recognition is an amazing tool in our arsenal to locate outstanding suspects, wanted people and those who pose a risk to the public. To reassure you, this tactic is heavily regulated and independently tested. Testing has confirmed that there is no bias in the system. Before any deployment there is a strict process to follow (including authorisation from a Superintendent). The system is extremely accurate and only very rarely will it produce a false match. I would like to stress that none of the false alerts have resulted in wrongful arrests, only police speaking to the individuals to confirm their identity. Every face the camera captures is immediately washed through the systems wanted database; if there is no match the image is immediately deleted and cannot be retrieved.

More information can be found here about live facial recognition:

Live Facial Recognition | Metropolitan Police

Regards,

Inspector Swan

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Nicholas Swan
(Metropolitan Police, Inspector, Merton)