Theatreland and Soho are two must-tick-off stops for tourists looking to get the full London experience — as well as being places that locals will occasionally visit for a night out. But they’re also crime hotspots: the West End and Soho remain among London’s most crime-hit areas, with theft, robbery and violence among the offences most commonly recorded.
To try and tackle that scourge, the Metropolitan Police plans to expand a trial the force says was successful in tackling crime in Croydon into more densely populated areas. Some 173 arrests were made after suspects were identified using live facial recognition (LFR) technology in Croydon, the Met says, with only one face out of 470,000 scanned during a six-month pilot being incorrectly identified. The Met has pointed to individual Croydon cases that have since resulted in prison sentences, but it has not published a full breakdown for all 173 arrests made during the six-month pilot.
