FOI 388154
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 388154
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 5th February 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
Information regarding your force’s use of Facial Recognition Technology, Retrospective Facial Recognition and the Police National Database (PND). Please provide the following information about your force’s use of Facial Recognition Technology, Retrospective Facial Recognition and the Police National Database (PND) for the periods between January 2024 and today’s date; if you do not hold this information for the whole length of the period stated above, please provide it for the period starting from the date you began recording the information:
- The processes (if any) undertaken by your force when using the Police National Database's face search capability to identify children (minors under the age of 18).
- If there is a Child Rights Impact Assessment for the use of:
- The Police National Database (PND)
- Facial Recognition Technology
- Retrospective Facial Recognition Technology
- The number of times Facial Recognition Technology, Retrospective Facial Recognition Technology and/or the Police National Database were used to identify children (minors under the age of 18).
- The following information about each search:
date
reason for search
officer defined ethnicity
self-defined ethnicity
gender of the person searched
age of person searched
response (i.e., whether the search returned a record and led to an arrest)
- Are CCTV images used during facial recognition checks which utilise the PND? If so, please share the number of times CCTV images were used for facial recognition checks
- Are CCTV images and footage retained on the Force Video management system, including those which depict children under the age of 16 and under the age of 18?
- Are images or data from facial recognition searches (in particular of minors under the age of 18) shared with other agencies or private organisations? If so, under what conditions?
- If your force does not currently use Facial Recognition Technology, retrospective Facial Recognition and/or the Police National Database (PND) please state if there are there plans to.
Reply
Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested. S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. S.12(2) of the Act exempts a public authority from its obligations under Section 1(1) - the duty to confirm if the information being requested is held, if to provide that confirmation alone would exceed the “appropriate limit”.
The information you have requested in Question 6, Are CCTV images and footage retained on the Force Video management system, including those which depict children under the age of 16 and under the age of 18?, is not available in a readily retrievable format. This information may be held within the Force Video management system records held by West Mercia Police however, to retrieve the requested information, if held, would involve a manual trawl and search of those video records held.
Given the volume, West Mercia Police are unable to manually check all it’s video records to establish if the information is held. In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each video record would have to be checked individually and hence in accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.
However, in accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request. You may wish to refine and resubmit your request to receive part of the information. For example we may be able to supply the information you have requested for questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 & 7, subject to any exemptions being engaged. Please contact us again should you wish to submit a request for alternative/reduced information.