LFR continuing to remove harmful criminals from streets, says MPS

These included a man who had breached his sexual harm prevention order and had been sending explicit images to children.

The MPS said LFR technology is “continuing to remove harmful criminals from the streets of London” and the public is mostly supportive of its use.

“During the early hours of Tuesday morning officers arrested a man who breached his sexual harm prevention order following an alert at a previous deployment in Clapham,” the force said.

“An investigation following this alert found the man was sending explicit images to children.

“He has been charged with two counts of sexual communication with a child and has been remanded in custody.”

Later that day officers made 11 arrests at two deployments in Sutton and Woolwich, one of which included a man who was wanted for possession of an offensive weapon and was found to be carrying a knife when stopped by officers.

Lindsey Chiswick, the MPS’s director of intelligence said: “As part of A New Met for London, which everyone across the organisation is committed to, we are guided by data.

“The data for our deployments is available to the public and shows the technology is outperforming what an independent study predicted.

“Reports into law enforcement use of this technology found the public are mostly supportive of it and that is the feedback we receive when they speak with officers at deployments.

“It’s vital we bring communities in London with us so we are continuing work with independent advisory groups and invite them to deployments.

“I will continue to reassure Londoners that all biometric data where there is not a match is deleted within a second and cannot be retrieved by police.”

The MPS said a bespoke watchlist is created for each deployment, focusing on people who are wanted or to ensure others are complying with their conditions as set out by a court.