Croydon’s six-month live facial recognition pilot ended with 173 arrests and a 10.5 per cent fall in crime, the Metropolitan Police said on 13 May 2026. Officers also made 37 arrests for breaches of court-imposed conditions, while people wanted for kidnap, rape and serious sexual assault were among those detained.
The results covered a pilot that ran from October 2025 to March 2026 and used static cameras at two locations at the north and south ends of Croydon’s high street. Police said the system was deployed in 24 separate operations, meaning an arrest every 35 minutes across the six months, and that violence against women and girls offences dropped by 21 per cent.
The scale of the monitoring was large. More than 470,000 people walked past the camera during the pilot, but police said there was only one false alert and no one has ever been arrested because of a false alert from live facial recognition. Lindsey Chiswick, a senior police figure quoted in the release, said the results showed why the technology is powerful when used carefully, openly and in the right places.
Croydon matters because it is where the Metropolitan Police chose to test a different way of using the technology. Instead of the usual dedicated van, officers mounted the static cameras on existing street furniture and activated them only when officers were present on the ground. The force said the setup works like van-based deployments but is monitored remotely, frees specialist vans for use elsewhere and expands live facial recognition capability.
That approach also explains the tension around the trial. The police point to faster identification of wanted people and a sharp drop in crime, but the system still depends on constant oversight and limited deployment windows. Chiswick said crime in the area was down by more than ten per cent and that the public can see the difference, and she added that the force would continue using static cameras in Croydon as part of regular live facial recognition deployments.
The numbers suggest the police are treating the pilot as a success and a blueprint, not a one-off. If the force keeps the cameras in place, Croydon is likely to remain one of London’s main testing grounds for live facial recognition, with the debate now shifting from whether it works to how far police should take it.
