Wednesday 13 August 2025 - BSIA Comms
More live facial recognition (LFR) vans will be rolled out across seven police forces in England to locate suspects for crimes including sexual offences, violent assaults and homicides, the Home Office has announced.
The forces will get access to 10 new vans equipped with cameras, which scan the faces of people walking past and check them against a list of wanted people.
The government says the technology has been used in London to make 580 arrests in 12 months, including 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions.
However, campaign group Big Brother Watch said the "significant expansion of the surveillance state" was "alarming".
Live facial recognition was first used in England and Wales in 2017 during the Uefa Champions League final football match in Cardiff.
Since then its use has largely been confined to South Wales, London and Essex including at a Beyoncé concert to scan for paedophiles and terrorists.
The government is now funding 10 vans equipped with LFR to be shared between seven forces, approximately doubling the number of vehicles.
The seven forces are Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.
The technology identifies people by taking measurements of facial features including the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline and then comparing the data to to an existing watchlist.
Each van will be staffed with a trained officer who checks the matches identified by the technology.
Simultaneously, the government is holding a consultation on what safeguards are needed to "ensure transparency and public confidence", ahead of drawing up a new legal framework.