Overview
- Home Office funding extends the vans to Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.
- West Yorkshire confirmed its first deployment in Leeds on November 11 to identify wanted suspects, locate missing people and protect vulnerable victims.
- Police describe a process where watchlist alerts are reviewed by an operator before officers engage with an individual.
- Across the seven centres, 10 new vans are being introduced under the extended pilot.
- Officials cite improved accuracy, including a Met report of a 0.0003% false alert rate, while campaigners question bias and reporting shows conflicting statements on how quickly non-matches are deleted.