FOI 947/25

Request

1. Watchlists and Demographic Information
2. The demographic breakdown (including, where available, race, gender, and age) of individuals included in watchlists used for:

Live Facial Recognition (LFR)

Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR)

Operator-Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR)

1. Any policies, criteria, or guidelines that govern the inclusion of individuals on watchlists for each of the above types of FRT.
2. Deployment and Oversight

For all deployments of Live Facial Recognition since its adoption:

1. The criteria, intelligence, or rationale used to determine deployment locations.
2. A list or summary of deployment locations, broken down by postcode or geographic area.
3. Whether demographic or socio-economic data influenced the selection of deployment locations.

Additionally, please provide details of any internal oversight, audits, or governance mechanisms in place to ensure the fair and lawful use of FRT, including:

Reviews of potential demographic disparities in alerts or matches.

Any complaints received regarding misuse or bias, and how such complaints were assessed.

3. Complaints and Reviews
4. The total number of complaints received concerning the use of FRT, broken down by:

Nature of complaint (e.g., privacy concerns, allegations of discrimination, data handling).

Outcome (e.g., resolved, dismissed, under investigation, upheld).

4. Copies or summaries of any internal or external reviews of South Wales Police's FRT practices, particularly those focused on fairness, ethics, bias, or public perception.
5. False Alerts and Demographics
6. A demographic breakdown (race, gender, and age, where available) of individuals involved in:
7. False alerts generated by LFR.
8. Confirmed alerts versus confirmed false alerts.
9. Details of any measures taken to identify or address disparities in false alert rates across different demographic groups.
10. Officer Training
11. Information on the training provided to officers involved in the use of FRT, including:

Training on identifying and mitigating algorithmic or operational bias.

Whether training is updated periodically in response to new research, internal findings, or complaints.

Response

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.         

In relation to your request, the following exemption applies:  

Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit. 

We have consulted with our Digital Services Division who have provided the following information in relation to your request.

Question 1a

South Wales Police (SWP) has deployed LFR on 143 occasions since its inception. The average number of people included on the watchlists is 639. Assuming 10 minutes to review each individual included and collate information, this would take 106 hours per deployment and 15205 hours for the entire number of deployments that have ever occurred.

Question 4aii

There have been 3148 alerts to date (false and correct). Assuming that each incidence takes 10 minutes to review the necessary information and collate, this would take in excess of 524 hours to provide this information.

It is estimated that the cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the "appropriate level" as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.  

In the case of the police service, the appropriate limit is £450 which has been calculated to equate to a total of 18 hours of work. 

If any part of the request exceeds the fees limit then Section 12 applies to the whole request. 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a refusal notice. 

Excess cost removes the forces obligation under the Freedom of Information Act, however under Section 16 – Duty to provide advice and assistance, an authority is required to offer an applicant the opportunity to redefine their request within the cost limit. If you were to remove question 1a and 4aii, then we may be able to assist with your request.