Estimated costs associated with live facial recognition & specialist training

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.027626

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. What are the estimated costs of live facial recognition deployments so far, from January 2020 to December 2022?

2. What are the total estimated costs of live facial recognition software and hardware incurred by the Metropolitan police to date?

3. Do Police officers require specialist training to operate live facial recognition? If so, what are the estimated costs of training officers to use LFR technology?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - What are the estimated costs of live facial recognition deployments so far, from January 2020 to December 2022?

Overt LFR technology in the MET has been deployed as part of wider policing crime reduction initiatives and therefore estimated costs are not held.

Q2 - What are the total estimated costs of live facial recognition software and hardware incurred by the Metropolitan police to date?

Overt LFR software and hardware’s total estimated costs at this time is £500k.

3a - Do Police officers require specialist training to operate live facial recognition?

Please see the below link to the Standard Operating Procedure for the overt deployment of Live Facial Recognition technology which answers this question.

3b - If so, what are the estimated costs of training officers to use LFR technology?

We do not have a document recording the estimated costs of training officers so this information is not held.