![\"Britain\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/01K1E468ASAY0M1PZ6AANPPDSH-ce9c3d.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\tBritain\u2019s biggest police force is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments a week.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tBritain\u2019s biggest police force is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments a week.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s biggest police force is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments a week.<\/p>\n
The move by the Metropolitan Police comes as it restructures to cover the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff amid budget shortages.<\/p>\n
Part of the overhaul will also see officers moved to bulk up the force\u2019s public order crime team, as the Met said it has faced increased demand linked to protest-related crimes in the past two years.<\/p>\n
The squad will go from 48 to 63 officers due to a rise in the number of protests, particularly related to Israel and Palestine, as well as environmental issues.<\/p>\n
Force chief Sir Mark Rowley told the PA news agency: \u201cThe numbers of protests have grown over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have any powers that are there to reduce the number of protests, to cancel them.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaws are very permissive and encouraging of protests, which is entirely understandable, and I\u2019ve got no objection to that, but what we\u2019ve seen, unfortunately, is a proportion of those create crime and offences.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the latest details of its restructure, the Met announced that live facial recognition will now be used up to 10 times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month the Met revealed that it had made 1,000 arrests using live facial recognition to date, of which 773 had led to charge or caution.<\/p>\n
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly concerning to see an expansion of facial recognition, especially at a time when there is a complete lack of regulation governing its use.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny tech which has the potential to infringe on our rights in the way scanning and identifying millions of people does needs to have robust safeguards around its use, including ensuring that proper independent oversight is in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government must legislate now to regulate this technology, protect people\u2019s rights, and make sure that the law on facial recognition does not get outpaced by the use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Mark insisted that the technology is responsibly used.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only using it to look for serious offenders like wanted offenders and registered sex offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe routinely put it out there and capture multiple serious offenders in one go, many of whom have committed serious offences against women or children, or people who are wanted for armed robbery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic piece of technology. It\u2019s very responsibly used, and that\u2019s why most of the public support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officers are also being moved to neighbourhood teams to deal with street crime including phone thefts, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting, with 80 moved to the team that covers the West End, a rise of 50%.<\/p>\n
Last month, retailers warned that flagship high streets such as Oxford Street in the West End were at risk without urgent national action on crime.<\/p>\n
While shoplifting hit a record high in 2024 with the number of offences surpassing 500,000 for the first time, High Streets UK, a group that represents 5,000 businesses, called for wider action to deal with all types of crime affecting high streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe West End generates \u00a350 billion for the UK economy,\u201d Sir Mark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an enormous wealth generator. It\u2019s important we police and protect that well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we think there\u2019s more we can do on our own and working with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will include patrolling the streets, \u201ctaking on the pickpockets\u201d, and officers tackling gangs plotting to rob shops, he said.<\/p>\n
Another 90 officers are moving to neighbourhood teams that cover six hotspots for robbery and theft \u2013 Brixton, Kingston, Ealing, Finsbury Park, Southwark and Spitalfields.<\/p>\n
The Met is Britain\u2019s largest police force, which as of February had 33,201 officers, 11,319 staff, 1,460 police community support officers and 1,127 specials.<\/p>\n
Sir Mark warned in April that the force is facing a \u00a3260 million budget shortfall, with cuts removing the Royal Parks police and dedicated schools officers as a result.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tPublished: 31\/07\/2025 by Radio NewsHub<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s biggest police force is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition to up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-306026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114946682664234578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}