The Met is continuing to remove harmful criminals from the streets of London with the assistance of Live Facial Recognition technology following 12 arrests on Tuesday (9 April). During the early hours of Tuesday morning officers arrested a man who breached his sexual harm prevention order following an alert at a previous deployment in Clapham. An investigation following this alert found the man was sending explicit images to children. He has been charged with two counts of sexual communication with a child and has been remanded in custody. Later that day officers made 11 arrests at two deployments in Sutton and Woolwich, one of which included a man who was wanted for possession of an offensive weapon and was found to be carrying a knife when stopped by officers. The 11 arrests were for: A man wanted for possession of an offensive weapon and breach of tag. He was also found in possession of a knife during a search (mentioned above). A man wanted for burglary, robbery, two counts of theft and failure to comply with a supervision order. A man wanted for theft of £37,000 A man arrested for breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order. A woman wanted for malicious communications. A man wanted for theft and possession of an offensive weapon. A man wanted for burglary and theft. A man wanted for threatening behaviour. A man wanted for threatening behaviour. A man wanted for threats to cause criminal damage. A man wanted for criminal damage. A bespoke watchlist is created for each deployment, focusing on people who are wanted or to ensure others are complying with their conditions as set out by a court. Lindsey Chiswick, who is the Met’s director of intelligence said: “As part of A New Met for London, which everyone across the organisation is committed to, we are guided by data. The data for our deployments is available to the public and shows the technology is outperforming what an independent study predicted. Reports into law enforcement use of this technology found the public are mostly supportive of it and that is the feedback we receive when they speak with officers at deployments. It’s vital we bring communities in London with us so we are continuing work with independent advisory groups and invite them to deployments. I will continue to reassure Londoners that all biometric data where there is not a match is deleted within a second and cannot be retrieved by police. More information about Live Facial Recognition technology can be found here.
