Cumbria Police used live facial recognition at Appleby Horse Fair for the first time this year, placing the cameras at the centre of its biggest operation at the annual Cumbria gathering. More than 200 officers were due to work 24/7 over the weekend as tens of thousands of visitors arrived, with police saying the technology would help make the fair safer.

The move mattered because Appleby Horse Fair draws huge crowds every year, and this weekend was expected to bring as many as an extra 50,000 people into town. For police, the cameras were part of a wider attempt to keep order at a festival that has long required a major security presence; for visitors like Danny Jones, who first came 30 years ago, the fair is still about atmosphere as much as transport and trade.

Jones, from Cardiff, said he was not a traveller himself as such, but he had spent decades buying from and selling to travelling people and kept coming back for the experience. “The atmosphere you got here, you can't buy it. You've got to come here, and you've got to experience it,” he said. “I've met a lot of travelling people in my time. I'm not a traveller myself as such. They're honourable people to deal with. I bought off them, I sold to them, friendly with them. I really enjoy it.”

That support sat alongside a wider acceptance inside the community. Billy Welch said most Gypsies and travellers did not mind the technology at all and backed its use, comparing it with facial recognition in places such as airports and other big gatherings. “It's just everywhere. It's just a part of life now. And myself, personally, I'm not really bothered about it. The majority of Gypsies and travellers don't mind it at all. And if you've done nothing wrong, well, you've got nothing to worry about,” he said.

Police put the case even more bluntly. Det Supt Dan St Quintin said the high-tech cameras helped make the fair a more enjoyable experience for everyone, and argued that the vast majority of the Gypsy Roma and traveller community would welcome live face recognition because they felt safe. He said the higher numbers this year were mainly because people felt safe and felt able to come knowing troublemakers in their community were being put off from coming.

But the operation also leaves one key question unanswered: how much the cameras actually changed on the ground. Police said the system was being used, but gave no confirmed outcome on how many people were identified or stopped. For a fair that depends on both welcome and order, that detail will matter when the weekend is over and the force assesses whether its biggest operation delivered more than reassurance.