The United Kingdom announced plans to rapidly expand the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to boost the surveillance state. According to The Independent, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the massive investment will help fix the country’s “broken” policing system. “This will include the largest-ever rollout of live facial recognition technologies across England and Wales,” Mahmood said. “At the same time, we will launch police dot AI, investing a record £150 million in AI and automation to make policing more effective and efficient,” she continued. Check it out: The United Kingdom has announced its largest nationwide rollout of AI facial recognition cameras ever. Facial recognition technology and police AI systems will now be used to monitor and control society. This is why mass migration and crime were allowed to surge, so they could… pic.twitter.com/XgqVKEdGqp — Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) January 26, 2026 More from The Independent: AI technology will be deployed to rapidly analyse CCTV, doorbell and mobile phone footage, detect deepfakes, carry out digital forensics and speed up administration such as form filling, redaction and transcription. Ms Mahmood said: “Criminals are operating in increasingly sophisticated ways. However, some police forces are still fighting crime with analogue methods. “We will roll out state-of-the-art tech to get more officers on the streets and put rapists and murderers behind bars.” The government is also increasing the number of live facial recognition vans fivefold, from 10 to 50, which will be used by forces across the country to help catch wanted criminals. The measures, announced on Monday, are part of the biggest overhaul to policing in England and Wales in 200 years. “This government’s reforms will ensure we have the right policing in the right place,” Mahmood said, according to BBC. Critics immediately blasted the announcement as an “attack on privacy,” “threat to free speech,” and “discrimination.” The government is pushing to "ramp up" live facial recognition across the country. Here are five reasons why we must #StopFacialRecognition in the UK pic.twitter.com/R38uIRaQ9i — Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) January 26, 2026 BBC explained further: There are also plans to set up a new National Centre for AI in policing. The idea is to develop new AI tools for police officers to help with things like going through CCTV footage and transcribing and redacting documents. Mahmood previously unveiled plans in November to get rid of elected Police and Crime Commissioners, and recently spoke of plans to create a National Police Service, referred to as the British FBI, which she said will free up forces to tackle everyday crime – plans which are now confirmed. The proposed new NPS will bring together the existing National Crime Agency (NCA) and Counter Terrorism Policing, as well as take in some functions currently carried out by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the National Police Air Service (NPAS), and the College of Policing. It was also confirmed that the power to sack chief constables will return to the home secretary, and that a a licence to practise for police officers – similar to the one for doctors – would be created. On the merging of police forces, the Home Office said the precise number and nature of each force will be the subject to a review that will report back to Mahmood in the summer. Sky News provided additional coverage: