- Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has indicated that the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street will be monitored by permanent live facial recognition cameras.
- The scheme would mark one of the UK's first permanent deployments of live facial recognition, using fixed cameras on street infrastructure rather than mobile vans.
- Human rights organisations including Liberty and Big Brother Watch heavily criticised the plan, describing it as an intrusive escalation in routine public surveillance.
- Scotland Yard aims to deploy static systems across the West End and Soho to target high-crime areas, following rollouts at London Tube stations and in Croydon.
- The Metropolitan Police and City Hall defended the technology as a key tool to tackle crime, noting it has led to more than 2,000 arrests since early 2024.
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