The Metropolitan Police is more than doubling its use of live facial recognition technology.
It will now be used up to 10 times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days, the force has said.
Privacy campaigners have called the expansion “incredibly concerning” at a time when its use is unregulated.
However, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says the technology is currently only used “to look for serious offenders like wanted offenders and registered sex offenders”.
Earlier this month, the force said it had made 1,000 arrests using live facial recognition to date, of which 773 had led to a charge or caution.
The technology is also due to be used at the Notting Hill Carnival in London later this month.
“We routinely put it out there and capture multiple serious offenders in one go, many of whom have committed serious offences against women or children, or people who are wanted for armed robbery,” Mr Rowley said.
“It’s a fantastic piece of technology. It’s very responsibly used, and that’s why most of the public support it.”
However, not everyone agrees.
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “Any tech which has the potential to infringe on our rights in the way scanning and identifying millions of people does needs to have robust safeguards around its use, including ensuring that proper independent oversight is in place.”
He urged ministers to act to regulate the technology in order to “protect people’s rights, and make sure that the law on facial recognition does not get outpaced by the use”.
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It comes as the force is restructuring to handle the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff due to funding cuts.
As part of its restructure plans, the Met’s public order crime team will increase from 48 to 63 members as protest-related crimes, particularly related to Israel, Palestine and the environment, have grown in the past two years.
Sir Mark said laws are “very permissive and encouraging of protests, which is entirely understandable, and I’ve got no objection to that, but what we’ve seen, unfortunately, is a proportion of those create crime and offences”.
Neighbourhood teams are also being expanded to deal with street crime, including phone thefts, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting, with 80 officers moving to the West End team and 90 reassigned to robbery and theft hotspots in Brixton, Kingston, Ealing, Finsbury Park, Southwark and Spitalfields.
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Officers will patrol the streets, “taking on the pickpockets” and tackling gangs plotting to rob shops, Mr Rowley said.
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said they will focus on “tackling antisocial behaviour, phone robbery and shoplifting in key areas”.
The Met had more than 33,000 officers and more than 11,000 staff in February.
Sir Mark warned in April that the force is facing a £260 million budget shortfall, with cuts removing the Royal Parks police and dedicated schools officers as a result.
