Live Facial Recognition Operation

Dear All,

On Monday 11th May we ran another Facial Recognition Operation on Victoria Street. Residents may have seen the bright red van parked near Waterstones surrounded by its array of cameras.

Facial recognition is proving an extremely valuable tool, helping us detain those who are wanted and check that registered sex offenders are complying with the conditions placed upon them. The threshold for positive matches is extremely high with only eight ‘false positives’ recorded out of a total of 3 three million facial scans in 2025.

Operating across London's boroughs live facial recognition operations have so far resulted in 550 arrests this year. Public reaction to the use of this technology has been overwhelmingly supportive. The Met' plans to increase its fleet of vans in the near future.

Monday's operation in our area resulted in a number of positive identifications of both wanted persons and registered sex offenders.