POLICE officers made 38 arrests in May thanks to Live Facial Recognition technology, including for offences including rape.

It means since they first deployed their vans in August 2024, they have made 162 arrests.

Detective Superintendent Stephen Jennings said: “The deployments in May really highlight the value this technology has.

“As a result of these deployments we’ve been able to get suspects into custody in connection with offences such as rape, sexual assault, violent assaults, and stalking and harassment.

“In one case a registered sex offender was found to have an undisclosed mobile phone so was arrested for breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order.

“One person arrested is suspected of leaving someone with a fractured jaw.

“A man who was wanted on a court warrant and stopped was found to have a knife and Class A drugs on him, while another man wanted for stalking and harassment was found to have a knife and a bottle of ammonia.

“This is just a snapshot of the positive results we’ve had over the last month.

“I’ve also been really pleased to hear the positive feedback from members of the public when speaking to the officers operating the vans.

“This technology has proved itself invaluable time and again in bringing suspects into custody and helping to progress investigations.”

Before every deployment a watchlist is created containing the images and data of those that the Police seek to locate. 

This includes those who are wanted for crime, subject to court orders, pose a risk to the public, vulnerable or at risk of harm.

Unless you are on the watchlist you cannot be matched. When the technology finds a possible match, an alert is generated.

Det Supt Jennings added that the technology is very accurate.

He said: “No-one has ever been arrested as a result of a false positive alert during any of our deployments.

“This technology is so clever that even if someone doesn’t have their whole face visible, they can still be correctly and accurately identified. So if someone’s wearing a face covering, it doesn’t mean they won’t ping up on the system.

“And if you’re not on our watchlist then your image is deleted in a fraction of a second. It’s not stored anywhere and it’s not saved on a database.”

And Det Supt Jennings said the arrests in May show how valuable LFR is: “Police officers spend a significant amount of time trying to locate individuals who are either wanted for criminal offences or at risk of harm.

“LFR enables this to be done more efficiently and accurately, allowing officers to be redeployed into visible policing and community engagement, where they can have the greatest impact.

“A real‑world comparison would be asking an officer to stand on a busy high street with a dossier containing images of 1,000 individuals who are sought by police and requiring them to 2identify those people as they pass by.

LFR simply performs this task in a faster, more reliable, and more proportionate way, using technology to support officers rather than replace them.”

You can read more about Live Facial Recognition and how it works on our website: Live facial recognition | Essex Police