Since early 2024, the Metropolitan Police has quietly turned London into a live facial recognition (LFR) testing ground—one hailed by some as a breakthrough in public safety and condemned by others as a disturbing step toward mass surveillance. In just 18 months, police have scanned the faces of roughly 2.4 million people, resulting in 1,035 arrests. That’s a success rate of just 0.04%, meaning over 99.9% of those scanned were innocent. Police officials, however, are touting the numbers as proof of progress. Lindsey Chiswick, head of the Met’s LFR program, called the milestone a testament to “cutting-edge technology” removing dangerous individuals from the streets, noting that several arrested suspects were tied to violent crimes, particularly against women and girls.

Still, critics argue the scale of biometric scanning paints a different picture—one that raises serious civil liberty concerns. What’s presented as precision policing increasingly resembles a massive dragnet, sweeping up millions of innocent people in the hope of catching a few offenders. The numbers have grown rapidly: from 36,000 scans in January 2024 to over 300,000 per month by early 2025. While the Met claims the technology is “targeted,” the rising scale and normalization of scanning suggest a growing surveillance infrastructure with unclear boundaries. Proponents argue it enhances efficiency and crime-fighting capabilities, but opponents warn that once such systems are in place, scaling back may be far more difficult than implementing them—and the line between safety and surveillance could quickly disappear.

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SOURCE: Reclaim the Net