The Metropolitan Police is planning to put in the UK’s first everlasting dwell facial recognition (LFR) cameras in Croydon, persevering with its sample of deploying the know-how in areas the place the Black inhabitants is far greater than the London common.
Native councillors have additionally complained that the choice to arrange facial recognition cameras completely has taken place with none group engagement from the power with native residents.
In summer season 2025, the power will deploy two mounted LFR cameras on buildings and lampposts within the space, which they declare will solely be turned on when officers are within the space and able to reply.
Up till now, LFR has solely been utilized by the power in an overt method, with specifically outfitted cameras atop a visibly marked police van getting used to scan public areas and crowds to determine folks in actual time by matching their faces towards a database of photos compiled by police.
In line with The Occasions, the Met’s neighbourhood policing superintendent, Mitch Carr, informed native Croydon leaders that the set up of everlasting LFR cameras will allow the power to embed a “enterprise as ordinary” strategy to the know-how that doesn’t depend on the provision of camera-mounted vans, that are in excessive demand.
“The top end result will see cameras overlaying an outlined space and can give us rather more flexibility across the days and occasions we will run the operations,” he stated.
Croydon MP Chris Philp – who can be shadow residence secretary and argued in favour of larger police facial recognition use all through his time as authorities minister for policing – stated “utilizing mounted cameras is the logical subsequent step within the roll-out of this know-how, which is able to guarantee much more wished criminals get caught”.
He added: “These few folks opposing this know-how want to elucidate why they don’t need these wished criminals to be arrested. There aren’t any legit privateness issues on condition that the photographs of these folks not on the wished listing are instantly and routinely deleted.”
Disproportionate policing
Responding to the announcement, native councillors and human rights teams have voiced issues that the Met’s resolution to put everlasting LFR cameras in Croydon – in addition to its use of the know-how typically – is disproportionate and contributing to the continued over-policing of sure communities.
Utilizing mounted cameras is the logical subsequent step within the roll-out of [LFR] know-how, which is able to guarantee much more wished criminals get caught Chris Philp, Croydon MP
In line with information gathered by Inexperienced Celebration London Meeting member Zoë Garbett, who’s actively campaigning towards the pilot, LFR has been used on greater than 30 events in Croydon for the reason that begin of 2024.
Throughout this time, figures present that whereas greater than 128,000 folks’s faces have been scanned, simply 133 arrests have been made.
On the broader use of LFR all through London, Garbett stated that over half of the 180 deployments that befell throughout 2024 have been in areas the place the proportion of Black residents is greater than town’s common, together with Lewisham and Haringey.
Whereas Black folks comprise 13.5% of London’s whole inhabitants, the proportion is far greater within the Met’s deployment areas, with Black folks making up 36% of the Haringey inhabitants, 34% of the Lewisham inhabitants, and 40.1% of the Croydon inhabitants.
“The Met’s resolution to roll out facial recognition in areas of London with greater Black populations reinforces the troubling assumption that sure communities … usually tend to be criminals,” she stated, including whereas almost two million folks in whole had their faces scanned throughout the Met’s 2024 deployments, solely 804 arrests have been made – a price of simply 0.04%.
“Facial recognition topics everybody to fixed surveillance, which matches towards the democratic precept that you simply shouldn’t be monitored except there’s a suspicion of wrongdoing,” she stated.
“The Met claims dwell facial recognition has been successful in London, however how is treating hundreds of thousands of Londoners as suspects to be thought of successful? The arrest figures are low, and it’s actually simply subjecting us to surveillance with out our data.”
Writing in Metropolis AM, interim director at privateness group Large Brother Watch Rebecca Vincent stated the transfer to deploy everlasting LFR cameras in Croydon “represents an alarming enlargement of the surveillance state, and an additional slide in the direction of a dystopian nightmare that might rapidly take maintain throughout the UK”.
She added that the roll-out additionally underscores the pressing want for legislative safeguards on LFR, which thus far has not been addressed in any Parliamentary laws: “Police forces have been left to put in writing their very own insurance policies on how they plan to make use of LFR, and may select how and when to make use of it. For its half, the Met’s ‘LFR watchlist’ expands past these suspected of felony exercise, together with weak individuals and even victims of crimes.”
Facial recognition topics everybody to fixed surveillance, which matches towards the democratic precept that you simply shouldn’t be monitored except there’s a suspicion of wrongdoing Zoë Garbett, Inexperienced Celebration London Meeting
Laptop Weekly contacted the Met in regards to the issues raised.
“The Met is dedicated to creating London safer, utilizing information and know-how to determine offenders that pose a danger to our communities,” stated a spokesperson for the power. “Final yr we revamped 500 arrests utilizing LFR – eradicating harmful people who have been suspected of great offences, together with strangulation, stalking, home abuse and rape.
“Every deployment relies on intelligence, and we proceed to interact with our communities to construct understanding about how this know-how works, offering reassurances that there are rigorous checks and balances in place to guard folks’s rights and privateness.”
Laptop Weekly particularly requested whether or not the power believes its use of the know-how is proportionate, given the large disparity between the variety of faces scanned and the variety of arrests, however acquired no response on this level.
The spokesperson did, nevertheless, problem the “everlasting” characterisation, including that the usage of LFR on avenue furnishings in Croydon is a short lived pilot, and that the cameras are usually not mounted.
They additional added the Met has carried out strong safeguards in its use of LFR, reminiscent of folks’s biometrics being instantly deleted if they’re scanned however not wished by police.
In addition they stated the system is precisely the identical as that utilized in van deployments, however with the cameras on avenue furnishings as an alternative, and that every LFR deployment relies on an intelligence-led evaluation of risk, hurt and danger.
In December 2023, senior cops confirmed to a Home of Lords committee that facial recognition watchlist picture choice relies on crime classes hooked up to folks’s photographs, fairly than a context-specific evaluation of the risk introduced by a given particular person.
An absence of group engagement
In response to the Met’s announcement, the Sutton and Croydon Inexperienced Celebration has joined with human rights group Liberty in calling for the nationwide halt of LFR deployments.
“There aren’t any legal guidelines relating to dwell facial recognition, which implies there aren’t any safeguards to its use by legislation enforcement,” it stated in a weblog publish, which additionally inspired folks to signal a petition created by Liberty opposing the usage of LFR by UK police.
“To Croydon residents, dwell facial recognition represents a gross invasion of privateness, to which we’ve had no formal alternative to object.”
To Croydon residents, dwell facial recognition represents a gross invasion of privateness, to which we’ve had no formal alternative to object Sutton and Croydon Inexperienced Celebration weblog publish
Croydon councillor Ria Patel informed Inside Croydon: “There was no dialogue of putting in these cameras at Croydon Council and residents have been given no say by any means. Now we have not given our consent, and these plans have to be stopped instantly.”
In line with assembly minutes of Croydon Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee – which is answerable for issues regarding crime and policing – LFR has solely been referenced as soon as in 2025.
“Croydon continues to make use of this tactic to exactly goal wished offenders. So far, since inception in December 2023, over 200 arrests have been made as a direct results of this know-how,” stated the committee in its ‘group security partnership annual evaluation’, which was revealed on 25 March 2025.
“This ensures a extra environment friendly use of police officer time and seeks to enhance public confidence by extremely seen group crime preventing. In 2025, we might be looking for to evolve how this know-how is used to construct on the success seen thus far.”
Previous to this, the final time LFR was talked about by the committee was throughout a assembly held in April 2024.
A Met spokesperson stated whereas the power will all the time interact with councils, enterprise leaders and area people members, it’s operationally unbiased, like all police forces.
A sample of ignoring native communities
The Met Police’s roll-out of LFR in different boroughs has equally taken place with little to no group engagement, and in some areas has occurred regardless of notable political opposition from native authorities.
In December 2024, for instance, group session paperwork obtained by Laptop Weekly beneath Freedom of Data (FoI) guidelines revealed that – opposite to the Met’s declare that its LFR deployments in Lewisham are “supported by the vast majority of residents” – there was little to no engagement with native residents.
Whereas the paperwork did present there was engagement with native councillors, the councillors themselves informed Laptop Weekly this engagement was very restricted. In addition they expressed concern over each the power’s use of the know-how and its characterisation of Lewisham deployments as having “huge” public assist.
Talking with Laptop Weekly within the wake of the Croydon announcement, Inexperienced Lewisham councillor Hau-Yu Tam highlighted how data round LFR deployments has been poorly communicated by the power, with deployments persevering with towards the categorical needs of councillors, residents and advocates.
“For instance, on Lewisham’s Safer Neighbourhood Board, which I sat on when LFR was being launched to Lewisham for the primary time, most of us expressed the sturdy view that LFR would re-traumatise racialised folks,” she stated.
Commenting on the Met’s resolution to deploy everlasting LFR in Croydon, Lewisham Labour councillor Liam Shrivastava – who can be chair of the borough’s Safer Stronger Communities Choose Committee that’s answerable for scrutinising police exercise within the space – stated on X that putting cameras onavenue furnishings on the town centres is deeply unsettling, and shifts LFR deployments from “overt” to “covert” surveillance of native communities.
“The truth that the Met has chosen to roll out these cameras within the borough with the largest Black inhabitants in London is at odds with its Race Motion Plan and won’t enhance outcomes for Black Londoners,” he wrote. “With the most important Black Caribbean group in London, Lewisham residents will rightly be involved that their borough would be the subsequent subjected to a everlasting assault on their rights and privateness with out their consent.”
Different councils have additionally handed motions rejecting the Met’s use of LFR of their native space, however to no avail. For instance, whereas a LFR moratorium was introduced by Haringey in March 2020, and a movement to droop use of the know-how in Newham was handed unanimously in January 2023 – no less than till biometric and anti-discrimination safeguards are in place – the Met has elected to proceed with its deployments in these areas.
“Police don’t care about policing by consent, they are going to implement on our communities within the title of ‘security’ whether or not we prefer it or not,” stated Tam, including that many knowledgeable advocates and residents she has spoken with are “disturbed” by the information of everlasting LFR in Croydon: “I’m livid with any politician and public servant who’s giving police forces carte blanche to develop their spying on our neighbourhoods.”
She added that putting in LFR completely is “harmful for our communities” as “it normalises surveillance, re-entrenches group divisions and – as a result of its opacity and lack of authorized safeguards – is huge open to being abused by officers.”
Though the House Workplace and policing our bodies have repeatedly claimed that police use of biometrics is roofed by “complete authorized framework”, there have additionally been repeated calls from Parliament and civil society for brand new authorized frameworks to explicitly govern legislation enforcement’s use of facial recognition know-how.
These embody three separate inquiries by the Lords Justice and House Affairs Committee (JHAC) into shoplifting, police algorithms and police facial recognition; an unbiased authorized evaluation by Matthew Ryder QC; the UK’s Equalities and Human Rights Fee; and the Home of Commons Science and Expertise Committee, which known as for a moratorium on LFR way back to July 2019.
In the meantime, a report from the outgoing biometrics commissioner for England and Wales famous in December 2024 that hundreds of thousands of unlawfully retained custody photos might nonetheless be used for facial recognition functions by UK police.
The Nationwide Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) beforehand confirmed to Laptop Weekly in November 2023 {that a} nationwide programme between policing and the House Workplace had been launched a month earlier than to make sure consistency and coordination throughout how police retain, course of and use custody photos, notably for facial recognition functions.
Commenting on the NPCC-House Workplace custody picture programme, the biometrics commissioner famous in his report that whereas work is “underway” to make sure the retention of photos is proportionate and lawful, “the usage of these custody photos of unconvicted people could embody for facial recognition functions” within the meantime.
