Met Police promises to tackle West End crime hotspots
2025-07-31
BBC
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The Metropolitan Police will more than double its use of live facial recognition technology to up to 10 deployments a week, citing increased protest-related crime and staff shortages. The AI system has already led to over 1,000 arrests, raising concerns about privacy, human rights, and lack of regulatory oversight.[AI generated]
Why's our monitor labelling this an incident or hazard?
Live facial recognition is an AI system used by the Met Police for real-time identification. Its expanded deployment and the associated issues—such as scanning millions of faces, including those unlawfully stored in databases, and the lack of regulatory safeguards—constitute direct involvement of AI in activities that have led to arrests and potential rights violations. The article describes realized harms (arrests, privacy infringements) and systemic concerns about rights and oversight, fitting the definition of an AI Incident rather than a hazard or complementary information.[AI generated]