“UK's first permanent facial recognition cameras to be installed in south London”, 24 March 2025

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The UK’s first permanent live facial recognition (LFR) cameras will be installed in south London in a bid to catch criminals.

The cameras will be permanently installed on two roads in the centre of Croydonas part of a pilot project run by the Metropolitan Police...

They will be used to monitor faces on streets and match images to a database of alleged criminals...

Privacy campaigners have strongly opposed the move, calling it a “steady slide into a dystopian nightmare”.

The cameras, attached to lampposts or buildings, will alert officers if images match against criminals on a wanted list.

…Rebecca Vincent, interim director of the privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the deployment of the cameras marked a “worrying escalation in the use of LFR with no oversight or legislative basis”.

“It's time to stop this steady slide into a dystopian nightmare and halt all use of LFR technology across the UK until legislative safeguards are introduced,” she added.