British Transport Police Trial Live Facial Recognition at Transport for London Stations

British Transport Police (BTP) has launched a trial of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology at selected Transport for London (TfL) stations. The TfL-supported trial forms part of ongoing efforts to improve safety across the transport network and help tackle sexual violence, harassment and intimidation, which disproportionately affect women and girls. The use of LFR technology by the Met Police and other police forces is proven to deter and find wanted criminals, protect people from harm and ultimately reduce crime.

Technology used in this trial only seeks to generate alerts for individuals on an authorised BTP watchlist linked to serious and high-harm offences including robbery, knife crime and sexual assaults. While faces are scanned in real time, images of people who are not a match are not retained, so anyone not on the watchlist will have their image automatically and immediately deleted as they continue their journey.

By focusing solely on people sought in connection with serious offences, LFR provides the police with an additional tool to intervene early and help prevent crime before it occurs.  BTP chooses TfL stations for the trial based on operational intelligence and analysis of crime data to help ensure the technology is deployed where it can have the greatest impact.

TfL’s new involvement in the trial will support its wider work to improve safety across the network – and also specifically tackle violence against women and girls, whose travel behaviours are shaped by experiences of sexual harassment and sexual offences, according to research TfL recently published. [1]

77 per cent (116/150) of 13- to 16-year-old girls surveyed said they had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on a journey involving public transport during the previous 12 months [2], while 91 per cent (136/150) said they had witnessed someone else experience it [3]. 40 per cent (400/1,006) said they had chosen not to make a journey using public transport because they felt unsafe [4]. When asked what would make them feel safer and more willing to use public transport, women and girls raised using LFR to identify offenders and alert police, which TfL has made a key priority for action.

Tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms, particularly sexual harassment and sexual offending on transport, is critical to ensuring everyone can travel with confidence and helping more women choose public transport and active travel. TfL continues to work with the police and specialist organisations on a range of initiatives, including targeted policing activity, behaviour change campaigns, staff training, bystander interventions, improvements to reporting and support services, and closer collaboration with specialist organisations. This new trial will assess how LFR could be used as an additional policing tool to support those efforts.

Siwan Hayward, Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement at Transport for London, said: “Everyone should be able to travel without fear of harassment, intimidation or violence. Tackling violence against women and girls and preventing sexual offending on our network remains a key priority. Live facial recognition has the potential to be a powerful additional tool in helping police quickly identify those wanted for high-harm offences, including sexual offences, and supports early intervention and helps stop incidents before they happen. This trial is an important step in understanding how this technology can be used on the London Underground in a targeted, proportionate way with strict safeguards in place. We will be monitoring and assessing the impact of LFR through this trial over the next four months.”

Chief Superintendent Chris Casey, BTP’s senior officer responsible for the project, said: “This marks an important new stage in our trial of LFR technology. Expanding deployments into London Underground stations will help us assess the technology in a different transport environment while continuing to refine how it is used across the railway network. Our deployments are intelligence-led and focused on identifying people wanted by the police or courts, including those suspected of serious offences and those who may be breaching bail conditions or court orders. Our focus remains on protecting the public, preventing crime and bringing offenders to justice, while ensuring the technology is used lawfully, proportionately and transparently.”

Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Deputy Mayor of London for Policing and Crime, said: “Facial recognition technology is already helping the Met get wanted criminals off the streets and protect our communities, so I’m pleased to see TfL and the BTP exploring how this cutting-edge technology can help Londoners and visitors to be safer and feel safer on our transport network too. I will be following the results of the pilot with interest as we continue to work with partner organisations, businesses and communities to build a safer London for everyone.”

The BTP-led trial will take place in signed areas of TfL stations, allowing customers to make informed choices about passing through. It includes robust safeguards, governance and oversight, and complies with the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks, including privacy, data protection, equality and human rights requirements. TfL has engaged extensively with key stakeholders around BTP deploying LFR technology in stations and taken on feedback. Stakeholder engagement will continue, during and after the trial, including commissioning independent research to assess perceptions of safety at the start and end of the programme as part of a wider evaluation.