Croydon Facial Recognition Pilot: 173 Arrests, 10.5% Crime Drop

A six-month pilot of live facial recognition cameras in Croydon, south London, led to 173 arrests and a significant drop in local crime, including a 21 percent reduction in violence against women and girls, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The trial, which ran from October 2025 to March 2026, marked the first use of static cameras mounted on Croydon High Street rather than mobile vans. Deployed across 24 operations, the technology scanned faces of passersby in real time and matched them against bespoke watchlists of wanted suspects. More than 470,000 people walked past the cameras, resulting in just one false alert, where an individual was briefly questioned by officers and then released.

Among those arrested were a 41-year-old man wanted for assault, a 36-year-old woman who had evaded court for an assault since 2004, and a 31-year-old man sought for voyeurism. Other detentions involved suspects wanted for serious sexual assault and kidnapping. Overall crime in the area fell by 10.5 percent compared to the previous year, with more than six in 10 offenses linked to the arrests occurring locally.

Lindsey Chiswick, the national and Metropolitan Police lead for the technology,...