The Labour government has hailed facial recognition technology as "the biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching." It wants all police forces to adopt it and recently announced 40 new vans equipped with live facial recognition cameras to be deployed in town centres across England and Wales.
How does live facial recognition work?
The simplest systems check faces captured on CCTV, mobile phones, dashcams, social media, and doorbell cameras against mugshots held on the police national database. The technology works by superimposing images, measuring angles and distances between facial landmarks such as eyes, moles, and scars to make a data-based check. This retrospective facial recognition is used during investigations and is available to all forces in England and Wales.
Live surveillance cameras in town centres
Live facial recognition (LFR) technology allows police to scan every passing face, capture its biometric data, and use AI-powered software at a remote operations centre to compare it in real time with watchlists of people wanted for arrest or under monitoring, such as those on probation. Some cameras are mounted on clearly marked police vans, but trials are also underway with cameras fixed to lamp-posts.
If there is a match, the two photos, the suspect’s name, and alleged crime are sent to mobile devices held by police officers near the cameras. Officers must instantly judge if the match is good and, if so, apprehend the person. The cameras are typically switched on for three- to four-hour spells in busy town centres and at big events.
What happens to images of passersby?
If a face is not matched to a wanted list, it is permanently deleted from the police system. This applies to almost every scan. For instance, anyone attending the British Grand Prix at Silverstone since 2023 is likely to have been among nearly one million faces scanned over a few days by Northamptonshire police. However, the mass surveillance at Silverstone triggered zero alerts.
Which UK police forces use live facial recognition?
Thirteen police forces in England and Wales have or are using LFR. The Metropolitan Police in London is the biggest user, starting in 2020. Since April 2023, more than 6.6 million faces have been scanned. Use has accelerated dramatically, with 1.7 million scans in 2026 so far resulting in 44 arrests.
In the first three months of this year, South Wales police scanned over 230,000 faces in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend, and Merthyr Tydfil, leading to 10 matches and five arrests. In 2024 and 2025, Essex police scanned 2.2 million faces and made 117 arrests. Surrey police’s LFR cameras scanned 60,000 residents in Staines, Camberley, Ashford, and Epsom in 2026, resulting in two arrests. Other forces using LFR include Leicestershire, North Wales, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and Sussex.
Does the technology have problems with racial bias?
The technology has historically been more likely to make errors with people from minority ethnic backgrounds. One study of an early system showed it made no errors with light-skinned males but erred in one in five cases with dark-skinned females. However, it appears to have improved.
A study published in March of Essex police deployments found that about half of the people on a watchlist were correctly identified, and incorrect identifications were extremely rare. However, the system was more likely to correctly identify men than women, and it was "statistically significantly more likely to correctly identify black participants than participants from other ethnic groups."
Another issue is deployment location. Research by the London Assembly found that over one recent year, more than half of the technology’s deployments took place in areas with a higher proportion of black residents than the London average.
Who oversees the technology?
Police forces face scrutiny from a wide range of bodies, including the Information Commissioner, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the courts, which last month backed the Metropolitan police’s use of the technology. Elected police and crime commissioners, the forensics regulator, the investigatory powers commissioner, and the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioners also have oversight. This scattered oversight is prompting the government to consult on a new legal framework.
What next for surveillance cameras?
The number of faces scanned every week is expected to keep rising. Police Scotland, which does not use LFR, plans to start using it. Police also intend to use their phones to scan faces in limited circumstances, such as when a subject refuses to provide details, is unconscious, incapable due to drink or drugs, or dead. This is known as operator-initiated facial recognition.
The next frontier could be cameras that analyse human movements for behaviours like loitering or aggressive postures, or even facial expressions to infer emotional states. The government’s consultation on a new legal framework asks for views on whether it should cover "technology that analyses the body and its movements to infer information about the person, such as their emotions or actions."
