Live Facial Recognition operation result - Wimbledon Town Centre - Thursday 30th July 2026

Live Facial Recognition operation result - Wimbledon Town Centre - Thursday 30th July 2026

Dear all,

Re: Live Facial Recognition operation result.

On Thursday 30th July 2026, Merton Safer Neighbourhoods Team ran a live facial recognition operation in Wimbledon Town Centre. I wanted to update you on the results.

Result:

Zero false alerts (false alerts are extremely rare).

Four positive alerts:

One arrest for possession of indecent images of children.
Three alerts resulted in police engaging with high harm offenders, checking they are complying with court-imposed conditions and assisting in building our intelligence picture on these individuals.

Other activity not linked to a camera alert:

One male arrested for a public order offence who was causing a disturbance and swearing repeatedly in the busy area filled with shoppers and young children. He has been issued with a £90 fine.
One incident of shoplifting resulting in multiple banning ordered being issued.

Live Facial Recognition Key Points

Live facial recognition is an amazing tool in our arsenal to locate outstanding suspects, wanted people and those who pose a risk to the public. To reassure you, this tactic is heavily regulated and independently tested. Testing has confirmed that there is no bias in the system. Before any deployment there is a strict process to follow (including authorisation from a Superintendent). The system is extremely accurate and only very rarely will it produce a false match. I would like to stress that none of the false alerts produced throughout London have resulted in wrongful arrests, only police speaking to the individuals to confirm their identity. Every face the camera captures is immediately washed through the systems wanted database; if there is no match the image is immediately deleted and cannot be retrieved.

More information can be found here about live facial recognition:

Live Facial Recognition | Metropolitan Police

Regards,

Inspector Swan

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Nicholas Swan
(Metropolitan Police, Inspector, Merton)