Information on river and canal recoveries and Facial Recognition

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035938

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. In each of the past 10 years how many people have been recovered dead from the River Thames and other London Rivers/Canals?
2. In each of the past 10 years how many people have been recovered Alive from the River Thames and other London Rivers/Canals?
3. How many facial recognition cameras does the Met operator, please state whether they are live streamed or not, whether they are static in for examples building or mobile for example in police vehicles? Please state how many are in each divsional area of the Met?
4. How many stops have been made based on this techcology in each of the past 5 years?
5. How many arrests have been made based on this technology in each of the past 5 years?
6. Of the stops made in Q3 how many uses of facial recognition technology has lead to prosecution?
7. Does the Met Police use any other technologies such as voice mapping or AI in their investigations, stops or arrests, please detail?

Decision

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

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - In each of the past 10 years how many people have been recovered dead from the River Thames and other London Rivers/Canals?

Please see below the number of bodies recovered from the River Thames, we do not record data for other London Rivers or Canals.

Q2 - In each of the past 10 years how many people have been recovered Alive from the River Thames and other Lonon Rivers / Canals?

We do not collate information on rescues. Please contact the RNLI for this data.

Q3 - How many facial recognition cameras does the Met operator, please state whether they are live streamed or not, whether they are static in for examples building or mobile for example in police vehicles? Please state how many are in each divsional area of the Met?

No information held – the MPS does not have Facial Recognition cameras, the cameras are CCTV cameras and not Facial Recognition cameras. The live CCTV feed runs through the LFR application.

Live Facial Recognition
Standalone CCTV cameras are focused on a specific area; when people pass through that area their images are streamed directly to the Live Facial Recognition system.
This system contains a watch list: a list of offenders wanted by the police and/or the courts, or those who pose a risk of harm to themselves or others. Further details of who can be on a watch list and how the Met carefully decides where to use LFR can be found in our Standard Operating Procedures for LFR.
LFR is not a ubiquitous tool that uses lots of CCTV cameras from across London to track every person’s movements. It is a carefully deployed overt policing tactic to help locate a limited number of people the police need to find in order to keep London safe.

Q4 - How many stops have been made based on this techcology in each of the past 5 years?

This information is available at the below link:
LFR - Deployment Grid 2020-2022.pdf & MPS LFR Deployments 2023 onwards.pdf

Q5 - How many arrests have been made based on this technology in each of the past 5 years?

This information is available at the below link:

LFR - Deployment Grid 2020-2022.pdf & MPS LFR Deployments 2023 onwards.pdf

Q6 - Of the stops made in Q4 how many uses of facial recognition technology has lead to prosecution?

This information is not held. An alert from LFR does not lead to a prosecution. For more information on how we use LFR please see Live Facial Recognition | Metropolitan Police

Q7 - Does the Met Police use any other technologies such as voice mapping or AI in their investigations, stops or arrests, please detail?

This question is invalid as it does not relate to information held but raises a general question.
Under S.16 duty to advise and assist please note that in many circumstances the police will neither confirm nor deny questions concerning information held relating to new capabilities.