Even the harshest critics of the Metropolitan Police admit the force has its work cut out with the Notting Hill Carnival.
Describing Europe’s biggest street party as a policing challenge would be a bit like referring to the Second World War as an unfortunate diplomatic incident.
Of course, it is not just the crowds of more than two million that put a strain on police resources every year on the August bank holiday. In recent years, it has also been the criminality – drugs, violence, knife crime, sexual offences, even murder – that all too frequently overshadows the celebrations.
So even with around 7,000 officers on duty, it is perhaps unsurprising that Met chiefs have introduced the use of live facial recognition (LFR) – previously deployed at the King’s coronation as well as Premier League matches – for the 2025 carnival.
Festivities officially began yesterday morning with the Children’s Day Parade. Thousands of revellers – many wearing ornate costumes of sequins and feathers – danced through the west London streets as drummers pounded unrelenting rhythms. Elsewhere, more than 30 sound systems blared out Caribbean and electronic dance music.
Meanwhile, officers were putting in place the final touches to their LFR system, which records images of people via sophisticated cameras. It uses biometric software to assess head size and other facial features, then converts these details into digital data. According to experts, any individual whose image scores 0.64 or higher (on a scale of zero to one) is highly likely to be a match for someone whose photo is on file.
At 6.23am yesterday, several hours before the parade got underway, specialists at the Met finalised a ‘watchlist’ of 16,231 individuals of interest to them. They included people wanted by the courts or being sought for alleged criminal activity that would merit jail time of ‘a year or more’.
Others on the list included those who have been freed under certain restrictions – including former prisoners released on licence from life sentences – to ensure they are sticking to the conditions imposed on them by the authorities.
Thousands of revellers – many wearing ornate costumes of sequins and feathers – danced through the west London streets as drummers pounded unrelenting rhythms
Police set up knife identifying arches after two people were murdered during last year’s carnival
Police also installed cameras at Paddington and Kensal Rise stations – key points of arrival for revellers – and positioned one of the force’s two LFR vans at each location. Everyone passing through the cameras was photographed and, when a match with someone on the watchlist was detected, an alert was sent to a handset carried by the Met officers involved in the operation.
The Daily Mail looked on yesterday as one ‘wanted’ individual – a haggard, pinch-faced man in his 40s wearing a baseball cap and T-shirt – came up on the LFR system. He was quietly taken aside before being questioned, searched, arrested and led away. By last night, according to a Met spokesman, 13 people had been arrested ‘following positive identifications using LFR’ across the two sites.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lindsey Chiswick, the Met’s lead for facial recognition, said: ‘This is all about public safety. We’re trying to stop people who are wanted for serious offences – including violent and sexual crimes – going to the Carnival. We want the law-abiding people who are there to enjoy themselves to be able to have a fun time and feel safe.
‘And we are doing this very publicly because we want to show people that their safety is a priority.’ She added: ‘It isn’t about technology taking over policing.
‘This is about using technology in tandem with policing. If a police officer is quickly shown ten or 20 photos on the morning of an event, there are obviously difficulties even trying to pick out one of those faces from a crowd a few hours later.
‘But this technology can immediately scan, in this instance today, more than 16,000 images and match them to someone showing up on the camera. At that point traditional policing comes into effect – with an officer’s judgment, empathy, understanding and also the ability to make a decision on whether an arrest is required.’
Another LFR team member said: ‘This bit of kit is one element of a very complex policing operation. We’re doing this openly and transparently. We are not trying to funnel people into passing through the camera – it is well signposted so people can turn the other way if they want to.
‘It’s a complete myth to suggest that this is about keeping data on people. As soon as the technology shows no match between people who’ve been recorded on camera and those on the watchlist, those images are automatically deleted – immediately and irretrievably. End of story.’
But the story is only beginning. Even though Sunday is the supposedly family-friendly day of the weekend, the Mail witnessed one middle-aged woman, unattended except for two concerned police officers, lying unconscious on the street next to a pool of vomit.
Meanwhile, dozens of businesses and homes have been boarded up – as every year. But, according to one local, police measures don’t go far enough: ‘Bringing in the live facial recognition technology is a positive move, but it won’t stop Carnival making life a misery for people around here every August.’