Two more people have been arrested in Chelmsford as a result of Essex Police's Live Facial Recognition technology.

The technology allows Police to effectively detect people wanted in connection with offences, or in other words on the Police 'Watch-list', from one of their LFR vans..

Two of these vans were deployed in Chelmsford city centre on Friday, October 4, with the focus being on detecting those wanted in connection with offences such as violent crime and shopkeeping. 

There were six positive alerts with two women arrested – one in connection with an assault and the other in connection the an investigation into shoplifting.

This was the thirteenth deployment of the vans, with their use now having led to 23 arrests

Five other people were also arrested by officers during the deployment, but not as a result of being identified by the LFR vans.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Hughes said: "The LFR vans have proved really effective at finding people wanted in connection with investigations and ensuring we can get suspects into custody, and help progress investigations.

"This was another really positive deployment with arrests made but also providing a fantastic opportunity to speak to the public and show them how the technology works."

DCI Hughes added: "The technology utilises CCTV camera feeds to LFR software to scan faces against a predetermined database or 'watch list' of people of interest. 

"The scanning of an image takes less than a second. The data/image of those not on the watchlist is automatically and immediately deleted and not stored.

"When there is a positive match, appropriate action will be taken by officers on the ground to confirm ID and then assess what the next action is to be taken."