Met set to scale drones, LFR and AI to fight crime
Image courtesy The Met
The move centres on a major rollout of drone operations across London, the roll out of static live facial recognition cameras and increased use of AI to analyse video evidence in criminal investigations.
The announcements came in a landmark speech which set out how technology and data exploitation could enable policing to make a transformative leap. The Commissioner stressed that without tackling the barriers to progress we will be outpaced by criminals.
In October last year, the Met launched a pilot that saw drones deployed in real time to incidents in Islington, providing live information and intelligence, tracking suspects and helping officers make faster, safer decisions.
Eight months later, the Met now operates three drone sites across London, with nine drones deploying to around 200 incidents every week. Response times now average below two minutes, with drones increasingly the first resource on scene.
However, the Commissioner said, the Met cannot stand still, setting out the next mission: an ambition that by this time next year, the Met will have drone coverage in every London borough. Alongside this, the Met will work with the blue light services to build a city-wide emergency services drone network.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “This is a turning point for policing in London. Today we are setting out how we will significantly step up our use of technology to fundamentally change how we protect the public.
“Drones are already transforming how we respond to incidents - getting visuals from the scene in minutes, giving officers critical intelligence and helping us act faster and more safely. Now we are scaling that capability across London and working with partners to create a truly integrated, city-wide drone network.
“We’re also rolling out live facial recognition with static cameras in areas like the West End, building on the success we have already seen in Croydon where it is driving arrests and cutting crime. And we are using AI powered video analytics to unlock the vast amounts of CCTV footage captured across London, helping our investigators find evidence faster and act earlier.
“But this is about more than individual tools. Criminals are already using technology to become more organised, more connected and harder to catch. Right now, policing is trying to keep up using systems that are too slow and too restrictive. If that does not change, we won’t succeed.”
Recent polling suggests that 87% of Londoners support the use of drones to respond to 999 calls to capture live evidence or information from a crime scene. The polling also shows that 81 per cent of Londoners also support the police adopting new technology.
The new network will include coordinated airspace management, shared launch sites, connectivity and control systems, allowing blue light services across London to respond more quickly and operate more efficiently and collaboratively while saving emergency service time on incidents that do not require multiple physical responses. This joint approach will save all services money.
Alongside this, the Commissioner confirmed a major rollout of live facial recognition (LFR), which remains a key tool in identifying and apprehending offenders.
Since the start of 2024, LFR has helped officers locate and arrest more than 2,000 dangerous offenders, including individuals wanted for rape, child abuse and other serious crimes. Public confidence remains strong, with around 80% of Londoners supporting its use.
Last year, static LFR cameras were trialled in Croydon, resulting in hundreds of arrests and a 10.5% reduction in crime, including retail offences, antisocial behaviour and violence against women and girls.
The speech also highlighted the growing role of AI in analysing video evidence. With around one million CCTV cameras across London, investigators are faced with an unprecedented volume of footage.
The Met is now using AI to significantly accelerate this process. The technology can scan and interpret footage to identify people, vehicles and key events, turning video into actionable evidence and intelligence. This enables investigators to move more quickly, identify lines of enquiry and reduce the risk of missed evidence.
Early use in serious crime investigations has already delivered results. Analysis across 23 major cases, including homicide investigations, covering more than 16,000 hours of CCTV, has reduced review time by the equivalent of 454 officer days, freeing up resources and enabling faster progress in investigations.
The Commissioner will use the speech to call for urgent national reform, warning that the current system is preventing policing from keeping pace with the pace of technological change.
He argued that policing should not be expected to wait for new legislation every time technology advances. While some campaigners call for a separate legal framework for each new capability, that approach is simply not viable in a fast-moving technological landscape. Instead, he made the case for clear, consistent principles governing the use of technology, underpinned by strong oversight, accountability and public transparency.
The speech highlighted a deeper, long-standing issue. For decades, political debate has focused heavily on police officer numbers, with far less attention given to whether policing has the tools it needs to do the job effectively.
The result has been a structural imbalance. Police officer pay budgets have been protected, while technology and infrastructure budgets has been repeatedly cut.
Meanwhile, other parts of the public sector have been allowed to sustain and prioritise investment in digital capability. At the upper end, government agencies are spending more than £13,000 per person on technology and data.
By contrast, the Met is able to invest around £6,000 per person, less than half that level.
The Commissioner warned that this gap matters. Without the right tools, policing cannot operate at the speed, scale or precision the modern threat demands and unless that changes, the gap between policing and those it seeks to protect against will continue to widen.
London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, said: “In London, the Met are leading the way in using the latest technology, including E-bikes, drones and Live Facial Recognition, to arrest dangerous criminals and tackle and prevent violence in the capital.
“We are proud to have backed the Met with record funding for the very latest technology to drive efficiencies and improve the performance and accountability of the police. This includes the largest roll-out of body worn video in the country, new IT platforms to significantly boost the police response to shoplifting offences and prosecutions, and a squadron of new e-bikes to tackle mobile phone theft, which is down by 14,000 in the past year.
“It is vital that the Met is both ready and able to meet the challenges of modern policing, but it’s also right that checks and balances are in place. Together with the London Policing Board, the Mayor and I will continue to support and challenge the Met to be open, transparent and accountable around the use of any new technology as we continue to build a safer London for everyone.”
