Metropolitan Police

In Thompson the High Court dismissed a judicial review brought by Shaun Thompson and Big Brother Watch's Silkie Carlo, upholding the Met's LFR policy of 11 September 2024 as in accordance with the law for Article 8, and prescribed by law for Articles 10 and 11, of the European Convention on Human Rights. The claimants challenged only whether the policy had the required quality of law, not proportionality, and the official judgment summary does not address data protection law. Any account of UK live facial recognition citing only Bridges is now stale.

Deployed at targeted operations rather than continuously, with published deployment records and arrest figures. The force says it has arrested more than 2,000 people using LFR since the start of 2024.

The deployment model is changing materially. The Croydon fixed-camera pilot, running October 2025 to March 2026 on the Met's own release, produced 173 arrests from more than 470,000 passers-by with one false alert on the Met's own figures. In June 2026 the Met confirmed fixed LFR cameras would be installed in the West End and Soho before the end of 2026, with six further areas during 2027, and in August 2026 the Mayor of London indicated the Oxford Street cameras would become permanent. This is a shift from mobile, targeted, time-limited deployments towards standing infrastructure, and is arguably a more significant development than any single deployment figure.

Use is spreading nationally: Statewatch's June 2026 survey recorded 12 forces using LFR, with trade reporting citing 13 of 43; treat the figure as at least 12 to 13 forces as of mid-2026 and rising. The Home Office announced 40 additional LFR vans in January 2026. First protest use came in May 2026.

An investigation by Liberty Investigates and The Times found children had featured at least 1,600 times on live facial recognition watchlists across six forces, including children as young as 12; the UK Joint Committee on Human Rights has formally questioned the Home Secretary about it. Research by London Assembly Member Zoe Garbett found over half of London deployments took place in areas with a higher proportion of Black residents than the city average.

Static deployment, September 2026. On 3 September 2026 the Westminster Central West BCU announced on its own X account that it was deploying live facial recognition to crime hotspots in Westminster borough that day. Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said cameras will be fitted across the West End and Soho by the end of 2026. These are static during deployments and attached to street furniture rather than van-mounted, though movable between deployments. It follows a six-month Croydon pilot the Met says ran October 2025 to March 2026, producing 173 arrests across 24 operations.

In April 2026 the High Court dismissed a judicial review of the Met's facial recognition policy in R (Thompson and Carlo) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, finding the specific policy compatible with the relevant human rights requirements. The judgment is subject to a proposed appeal. Biometrics commissioners warned in May 2026 that dedicated legislation could still be three years away, and the February 2026 Home Office consultation had produced no published outcome by September.

Update, November 2026. The Thompson judgment was given by the Divisional Court (Lord Justice Holgate and Mrs Justice Farbey) on 21 April 2026, [2026] EWHC 915 (Admin), with the Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening. Commentary records that Mr Thompson has indicated an intention to appeal; no report of permission to appeal being sought, granted or refused was found. The Met's release of 13 May 2026 gives the Croydon figures: static cameras on existing street furniture at two locations at the north and south ends of the high street, 24 operations between October 2025 and March 2026, 173 arrests (37 for breaches of court-imposed conditions), more than 470,000 people passing the cameras and one false alert, which led to a brief stop. Its release of 23 June 2026 says the Met will install static cameras in the West End and Soho by December 2026, and describes the Croydon model: cameras on existing infrastructure such as lampposts, monitored remotely and activated only during deployments when officers are on the ground, with each watchlist created no more than 24 hours in advance and deleted immediately afterwards; it also says rollout across London will accelerate from 2027 and gives more than 2,000 arrests using LFR since the start of 2024. The text read does not give a number of further areas. No vendor is named in either release. LBC reported on 12 August 2026 that the Mayor "appeared to confirm" that live facial recognition would be used on Oxford Street once it is pedestrianised, and that a spokesperson said his Office for Policing and Crime would "continue to scrutinise and oversee its use"; the LBC report does not itself say the Oxford Street cameras will be permanent.