Met Police launch Christmas blitz on e-bike phone snatchers in London's West End using facial recognition

"Britain's biggest force is even turning to facial recognition cameras to stamp out the scourge. The new crackdown is all part of A New Met for London: Phase 2, a blueprint for the policing the capital over the next three years. Officers arrest a suspect on Charing Cross Road near Soho Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said cameras can work fast enough to scan the faces of riders who can then be stopped in specialised operations."

"Back out on the streets, Sergeant Ryan Perry demonstrated how the Sur-ron Ultra Bees bikes weave through traffic at high speed in pursuit of suspects along Berkeley Square, Mayfair and nearby Knightsbridge. He said: It gives us the opportunity to take the fight to the individuals that commit this sort of criminality. The people that ride their versions of these bikes will not care for pedestrians, they will not care for red lights, they will travel at 50-plus miles an hour. We have to manage that risk as well."

Police have launched a major crackdown on phone snatchers and luxury watch rippers riding e-bikes in London's West End ahead of Christmas. The Metropolitan Police are using facial recognition cameras and specialised interception units, including Sur-ron Ultra Bees bikes and unmarked SUVs, to identify, pursue and stop suspects. Operations have resulted in multiple seizures—16 e-bikes in Cambridge Circus and 12 illegal cycles and e-scooters in Ealing—and several arrests, including a man wanted for a sexual offence. Seized illegal e-bikes have been crushed, gift-wrapped and displayed outside New Scotland Yard as a deterrent. Helicopter support assists interception teams.

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