Overview

• Met formalizes up to 10 live facial recognition deployments per week as part of a restructure addressing a £260 million budget shortfall and the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff.
• The public order crime team will increase from 48 to 63 officers to tackle a rise in protest-related offences over the past two years.
• Neighbourhood units in the West End will gain 80 officers while six robbery hotspots—Brixton, Kingston, Ealing, Finsbury Park, Southwark and Spitalfields—will receive 90 additional officers to combat street crime.
• Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says live facial recognition has yielded 1,000 arrests to date, with 773 resulting in charge or caution and focused on serious offenders.
• Liberty’s Charlie Whelton warns the expansion exploits unchecked powers in the absence of a legal framework, demanding urgent legislation to govern biometric surveillance.