Live Facial Recognition Operation - Victoria Street - 2nd November 2026

Live Facial Recognition Operation - Victoria Street - 2nd November 2026

Dear Resident,

On Monday 2nd November, your ward team officers deployed on a Live Facial Recognition operation on Victoria Street. The operation uses cameras in a specific area to compare images of those passing through the area with a watchlist, which is made up of wanted offenders; either wanted by police or by the courts. 

If a potential match is made, the information is then checked by officers deployed on the operation; once the match has been confirmed, that person can be arrested for the offence that they are wanted for. 

If there is no match to the person walking past the cameras, the image is deleted straight away. 

On Monday's operation, we made 7 arrests, with offenders wanted for a range of offences including Rape, Actual Bodily Harm and Possession of Controlled Substances. There were also several individuals who had been recalled to prison. 

Live Facial Recognition is a precise, efficient use of technology to detect wanted offenders and keep our communities safe. It has proved to be especially useful in the Victoria area, as we have had several deployments of LFR in the past 12 months, on each occasion where we have detected and apprehended wanted offenders. 

If you would like to find out more information about how the Met uses facial recognition technology, you can visit our website here, including an informative video on how the cameras work.