A number of registered sex offenders have been arrested during the first three months of GMP’d deployment of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology.
The force have been using LFR since October 2025, resulting in 40 arrests with one in five for registered sex offenders.
Out of the 40 people arrested, 30 have been charged with various offences.
At one of the most recent deployments, John Thompson from Manchester, was caught in Piccadilly Gardens and has now been charged with 36 offences.
He was stopped on suspicion of breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
Thompson was charged with 35 breaches of his SHPO and a breach of his sex offender notification requirements – he will next appear at Manchester Crown Court on 16 February 2026 and remains in custody.
The two vans, supplied by the Home Office, have been deployed 23 times by Greater Manchester Police since the first operation in Sale town centre in October 2025 – they have also been used by other forces in the north west.
The most recent deployments in Manchester city centre and Manchester Airport saw a number of arrests, including a Man arrested for stalking offences after failing to answer police bail in November 2025 and another man arrested on suspicion of possession of indecent images and a further arrested for being wanted for domestic offences since September 2024
Other notable successes have included the arrest of a suspect wanted since May 2025 for firearms offences and the safeguarding of a vulnerable man who had left an NHS facility.
The deployment at the match between Manchester United and Manchester City at the weekend was the first time GMP has used LFR at a football match.
Inspector Jon Middleton said: “This is exactly why we have been using LFR – to keep our communities safe, catch wanted suspects and make sure people are adhering to their court conditions.
“This proactive approach allows officers to intervene more quickly before suspects can commit further offences, reducing the risk to the public.
“We will continue to deploy across Greater Manchester to support our neighbourhood policing teams.”
Our watchlists are made up of vulnerable missing persons, people wanted for a crime or by the courts, or who are under certain conditions that could be breached.
The cameras focus on a specific area or crowd and detect faces compared to a pre-prepared watchlist with an alert issued immediately if there is a match when officers can take action.
