Welsh police forces launch first facial recognition mobile app

The technology will enable officers to confirm the identity of someone who’s missing, at risk or wanted in circumstances when they’re unable to provide details, refuse to give details or otherwise provide false details.

The app can also be used on someone who has passed away or who’s unconscious, helping officers to identify them promptly such that their family members can be reached with care and compassion.

Known as Operator Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR), the technology has already been tested by 70 officers across South Wales who were able to use it in a range of scenarios where people either refused to identify themselves or provided false details.

In those cases where someone is wanted by the police for a criminal offence, it secures their quick arrest and detention. Cases of mistaken identity are easily resolved without the necessity to visit a police station or custody suite.

Photographs taken using the app are never retained and in private places (such as houses, schools, medical facilities and places of worship) the app will only be used in situations relating to a risk of significant harm.

Accurate confirmation

Trudi Meyrick of South Wales Police said: “Police officers have always been able to spot someone who they think is missing or wanted and stop them in the street. What this technology does is enhance officers’ ability to accurately confirm a person’s identity, helping to ensure a fair and transparent resolution.”

Meyrick continued: “This mobile phone app means that, with the taking of a single photograph which is then compared to the police database, officers can easily and quickly answer the question: ‘Are you really the person we are looking for?’. When dealing with a person of interest during their patrols in our communities, officers will be able to access instant information, in turn allowing them to identify whether the person stopped is – or isn’t – the individual they need to speak to without having to return to a police station.”

Further, Meyrick observed: “This technology doesn’t replace traditional means of identifying people and our police officers will only be using it in those instances where it’s both necessary and proportionate to do so, with the aim of keeping that particular individual – and members of the wider public – safe.”

Facial recognition is just one way in which technological advancements are being used across the South Wales and Gwent police forces with the aim of making the work of police officers easier and faster so that they can have more time to spend on keeping communities safe.

Nick McLain of Gwent Police commented: “Embracing technology and innovation is an integral part of effective policing and public safety. I am proud that Gwent Police and South Wales Police are jointly leading the way in this field with the introduction of the first facial recognition app.”

McLain added: “The use of this technology always involves human decision-making and oversight, ensuring that it’s deployed lawfully, ethically and in the public interest. We have a robust scrutiny process in place to ensure accountability, while testing found no evidence of racial, age or gender bias. By implementing this app, we are preventing harm, helping those in need and keeping our communities safe.”

Results from the pilot

The pilot study ran from December 2021 to March 2022. In all, the 39 photographs obtained were of male subjects and three were obtained of females. There were no uses recorded against an unknown gender..

Of the 42 uses of the app with 35 individual subjects photographed, the following reasons were recorded:

*Refused to provide details: 7

*Suspected false details: 18

*Unable to provide details: 17

The following grounds were recorded:

*Suspected of an offence: 30

*Suspected missing person: 9

*Deceased: 2

*Suspected to suffer harm: 1

The feedback from officers involved in the trial is that the app is user-friendly and a benefit to operational policing. There have been occasions when the use of the app has led to vehicles being seized from disqualified drivers who have lied about their identity.

It has been used on shoplifters who have lied to try and avoid arrest to gain an out of court disposal. The app has been used twice with deceased persons, one of which resulted in a match which allowed officers to speed up the formal identification process following a fatal road traffic collision. In these circumstances, it could prevent a family learning of a death of a loved one via social media or a third party.

The app has allowed the safe return of a 15-year-old missing person from another part of the UK whom it identified after he refused to give his details. He was returned to a place of safety after being identified using the app. Officers in South Wales were then able to contact the missing individual’s home force to inform them of his whereabouts.

Response from Big Brother Watch

Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, has explained: “On-the-spot face scans could turn South Wales into a ‘papers please’ society and undermine our right to go about our business without having to explain or identify ourselves to police officers. This Orwellian tech is alarmingly close to introducing ID cards by the back door. In Britain, none of us has to identify ourselves to the police without very good reason, but this unregulated surveillance tech threatens to take that fundamental right away.”

Hurfurt continued: “We all want the police to be able to work efficiently, but mobile facial recognition creates a dangerous imbalance between the public’s rights with the police’s powers.”

According to Hurfurt: “South Wales Police will search against thousands of unlawfully held photos every time one of its officers conducts a face scan. They should be fixing this ongoing industrial scale privacy breach rather than exploiting these photos for yet more surveillance. Trial data shows that South Wales Police disproportionately targeted ethnic minorities for face scans, which will further undermine trust in the police service.”

In conclusion, Hurfurt noted: “The Government is long overdue in regulating facial recognition to protect the public’s rights and should urgently move to prevent police forces from using mobile face scanning technology.”