Facial recognition used with CCTV - 'Face in the crowd' project

Pippa King made this Freedom of Information request to West Midlands Police

This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

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The request was partially successful.

Dear West Midlands Police,

Under the Freedom of Information Act please could you supply the following information within 20 working days.

With reference project to run facial detection/recognition through CCTV cameras ‘Face in the crowd’ (see point 4.3), as mentioned in ACPO’s submission to the House of Commons Science and Technology’s Committee: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc...

“There are many developments around digital imagery as technologies such as facial recognition continue to mature. In West Midlands Police, for example, the innovation partner Accenture are looking at the application of ‘face in the crowd’ technologies across the wealth of CCTV footage available. It is recognised that infrastructure challenges will need to be overcome for this technology to be applied successfully.”

1) Please advise if this system is live. If the answer is ‘yes’ please answer 1) a-l:

a) Please provide the privacy impact assessment.

b) How many searches have been done? Please break down by how many individuals have been positively identified and searches that have not been able to positively identify an individual?

c) Have any searches contributed to the assistance of a conviction?

d) Have any searches contributed to finding a missing person?

e) Have any searches contributed to finding any other person? If so please advise the reason this/these person/s were sought?

f) How long has the system been running? Please provide the start date.

g) Please advise the company supplying the hardware (if any) and the software to identify individuals.

h) Please advise which CCTV networks are using the system.

i) Please advise if images from elsewhere are being used. i.e. private surveillance systems, custody images, etc.

j) What ‘infrastructure challenges will need to be overcome for this technology to be applied successfully’?

k) How long does the system retain images for?

l) How many images are stored and what proportions of these are of people not found guilty of a crime?

2) If the project is not yet implemented please answer 2) a-c

a) Please advise the reason why.

b) Please advise when West Midlands Police plan to implement such a system or whether the idea has been abandoned.

c) Please advise the companies providing the hardware (if any) and software.

Some parts of this request may be easier to answer than others and in such case please could you release available data as soon as possible rather than delay the entire request.

If you are not fully certain of what it is I am asking then I look forward to contact from you as soon as possible to clarify what it is I am requesting in order to meet your obligations under the law.

If the costs of processing this request exceed the limit in the Act, please advise on what information you are able to supply within the cost limit.

I appreciate police forces are busy and I am grateful for your attention on this.

Yours faithfully,

Pippa King

Dear West Midlands Police,

Please could you confirm receipt of my request for information "Facial recognition used with CCTV - 'Face in the crowd' project" sent on 20th February 2015. I appreciate police forces are busy and I am grateful for your time on this.

Yours faithfully,

Pippa King

Hello

Your request was received on 20 February 2015 ( ref 608/15) and we aim to respond within the prescribed 20 working days

Regards

Susan Brown
Freedom of Information Unit
Tel: 101
ext: 7630 6781
email. [email address]
Working hours 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Thursday

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: www.west-midlands.police.uk
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show quoted sections

Dear Ms King

FOI Request Reference: 000608/15

Thank you for your request for information, received 20/02/2015

REQUEST

With reference project to run facial detection/recognition through CCTV
cameras `Face in the crowd’ (see point 4.3), as mentioned in ACPOs
submission to the House of Commons Science and Technology’s Committee:

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc...

"There are many developments around digital imagery as technologies such
as facial recognition continue to mature. In West Midlands Police, for
example, the innovation partner Accenture are looking at the application
of `face in the crowd’ technologies across the wealth of CCTV footage
available. It is recognised that infrastructure challenges will need to be
overcome for this technology to be applied successfully."

1) Please advise if this system is live. If the answer is `yes please
answer 1) a-l:

a) Please provide the privacy impact assessment.

b) How many searches have been done? Please break down by how many
individuals have been positively identified and searches that have not
been able to positively identify an individual?

c) Have any searches contributed to the assistance of a conviction?

d) Have any searches contributed to finding a missing person?

e) Have any searches contributed to finding any other person? If so
please advise the reason this/these person/s were sought?

f) How long has the system been running? Please provide the start date.

g) Please advise the company supplying the hardware (if any) and the
software to identify individuals.

h) Please advise which CCTV networks are using the system.

i) Please advise if images from elsewhere are being used. i.e. private
surveillance systems, custody images, etc.

j) What `infrastructure challenges will need to be overcome for this
technology to be applied successfully?

k) How long does the system retain images for?

l) How many images are stored and what proportions of these are of people
not found guilty of a crime?

2) If the project is not yet implemented please answer 2) a-c

a) Please advise the reason why.

b) Please advise when West Midlands Police plan to implement such a system
or whether the idea has been abandoned.

c) Please advise the companies providing the hardware (if any) and
software.

RESPONSE

West Midlands Police are exploring the use of a wide range of technologies
as part of their WMP2020 Blueprint. Whilst many technologies are being
considered, no specific application of facial recognition has been planned
at this stage. Any procurement of hardware or software in relation to this
would follow the relevant procurement process.

As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office a
version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police
website.

For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our
publication scheme and disclosure log

[1]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

[2]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

Please note that such an appeal must be received within six months of the
date of this correspondence.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Brown

Freedom of Information Unit

Tel: 101

ext: 7630 6781

email. [email address]

Working hours 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Thursday

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an
emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: [3]www.west-midlands.police.uk
Twitter: [4]www.twitter.com/wmpolice
Facebook: [5]www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
YouTube: [6]www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice

Flickr: [7]www.flickr.com/westmidlandspolice

[8]View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

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References

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Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for your response to my Freedom of Information request. I appreciate your time on this. I hope you can clarify a few queries that I have as am unclear of some detail from your response.

West Midland Police (WMP) procured the services of Accenture as per Accenture's press release http://newsroom.accenture.com/news/west-... in July 2014 and ACPO state that WMP are working with Accenture for a facial recognition (FR) system 'Face in the Crowd'.

As ACPO stated to Parliament that WMP are "looking" at FR technology and you state that you have no specific plans to implement FR at this stage, can I presume the answer to my question 2 (a) is that plans for this have been abandoned? If not, please could you answer the other part of that question which is when would any FR be planned to be implemented? In which case WMP could possibly answer 1(k). I am unclear the whether WMP have abandoned "looking" at FR or are still considering the technology. Please could you clarify?

If WMP are still considering FR technology am I to assume (as ACPO state that Accenture are looking at FR with yourselves and WMP have already procured Accenture's services) whether the FR technology Accenture can offer has been procured yet or is it an added service yet to procure if WMP so desire? Or whether WMP have decided not to use Accenture and another company offering FR is being considered and if so which company/ies? This response of course is dependent on the response to question 2(a)

Background ------
Written Evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into the Current and future uses of biometric data
and technologies, submitted by Chief Constable Chris Sims - ACPO
Forensics Portfolio:
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc...

From the above report see point 4.3: “In West Midlands Police, for example, the innovation partner Accenture are looking at the application of ‘face in the crowd’ technologies across the wealth of CCTV footage available. It is recognised that infrastructure challenges will need to be overcome for this technology to be applied successfully.”

WMP FOIR response: "West Midlands Police are exploring the use of a wide range of technologies as part of their WMP2020 Blueprint. Whilst many technologies are being considered, no specific application of facial recognition has been planned at this stage. Any procurement of hardware or software in relation to this would follow the relevant procurement process."
------

I appreciate Police Forces are busy and I am grateful your time in this.

Yours sincerely,

Pippa King

Please accept this as an acknowledgement of receipt of your e-mail by the
Freedom of Information Unit.

If your email is a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, your request will be dealt with within the legislative
deadline of 20 working days. Should we be unable to meet this deadline
for any reason you will be notified as soon as possible.

If your request does not relate to Freedom of Information, your e-mail
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If you require further information please contact 101 and ask for the
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You might find what you are looking for on our website:
[1]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

If you have information about any crime, you can contact us on the
non-emergency number: 101.

In an emergency, for example where life is in danger or a crime in
progress, call 999.

References

Visible links
1. http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

Dear West Midlands Police,

It has been over two weeks since I asked West Midlands Police to clarify the response to my Freedom of Information request. Please could you indicate when you are able to clarify your response as this is now overdue as per my original request from 20th February 2015.

I appreciate your time in this.

Yours faithfully,

Pippa King

Hello

Apologies, I am hoping to get a response to you early next week

Regards

Sue

Susan Brown
Freedom of Information Unit
Tel: 101
ext: 7630 6781
email. [email address]
Working hours 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Thursday

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

show quoted sections

Dear Ms King

FOI Request Reference: 001032/15

Thank you for your request for information, received 31/03/2015

REQUEST

I hope you can clarify a few queries that I have as am unclear of some
detail from your response.

West Midland Police (WMP) procured the services of Accenture as per
Accenture's press release
http://newsroom.accenture.com/news/west-...
in July 2014 and ACPO state that WMP are working with Accenture for a
facial recognition (FR) system 'Face in the Crowd'.

As ACPO stated to Parliament that WMP are "looking" at FR technology and
you state that you have no specific plans to implement FR at this stage,
can I presume the answer to my question 2 (a) is that plans for this have
been abandoned? If not, please could you answer the other part of that
question which is when would any FR be planned to be implemented? In
which case WMP could possibly answer 1(k). I am unclear the whether WMP
have abandoned "looking" at FR or are still considering the technology.
Please could you clarify?

If WMP are still considering FR technology am I to assume (as ACPO state
that Accenture are looking at FR with yourselves and WMP have already
procured Accenture's services) whether the FR technology Accenture can
offer has been procured yet or is it an added service yet to procure if
WMP so desire? Or whether WMP have decided not to use Accenture and
another company offering FR is being considered and if so which
company/ies? This response of course is dependent on the response to
question 2(a)

Background ------

Written Evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee
Inquiry into the Current and future uses of biometric data

and technologies, submitted by Chief Constable Chris Sims - ACPO

Forensics Portfolio:

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc...

From the above report see point 4.3: "In West Midlands Police, for
example, the innovation partner Accenture are looking at the application
of `face in the crowd¿ technologies across the wealth of CCTV footage
available. It is recognised that infrastructure challenges will need to be
overcome for this technology to be applied successfully."

WMP FOIR response: "West Midlands Police are exploring the use of a wide
range of technologies as part of their WMP2020 Blueprint. Whilst many
technologies are being considered, no specific application of facial
recognition has been planned at this stage. Any procurement of hardware or
software in relation to this would follow the relevant procurement
process."

RESPONSE

WMP Contracts & Procurement Manager have confirmed that there is no
contracts and procurement activity around A Face in the Crowd, to procure
any services, or associated technology.

Facial Recognition FR is not a project or a piece of work which has been
commissioned, and neither WMP or Accenture have any planned activity to
implement FR. WMP will consider the potential opportunity at a strategic
level of how this could be provisioned, scoped, delivered with key
stakeholders however this would still not result in any practical activity
of procuring technology or any associated business services as there is a
governance process which would need to be adopted for any new initiative
or potential opportunity at this scale.

WMP and Accenture are working in partnership to deliver a transformed
policing service to the public, FR has not been confirmed as a product
that we will be procuring either with Accenture or any other third party
supplier, it is still subjected to the above governance process and will
be referred to WMP commissioning process.

There are no companies which are provisioning any hardware or software
services, also at present there are no timelines defined as this is not a
commissioned piece of work.

As recommended as good practice by the Information Commissioner’s Office a
version of this response may be published on the West Midlands Police
website.

For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our
publication scheme and disclosure log

[1]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

[2]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

Please note that such an appeal must be received within six months of the
date of this correspondence.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Brown

Freedom of Information Unit

Tel: 101

ext: 7630 6781

email [email address]

Working hours 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Thursday

To report crime and anti-social behaviour which does not require an
emergency response please call 101. In an emergency call 999.

Website: [3]www.west-midlands.police.uk
Twitter: [4]www.twitter.com/wmpolice
Facebook: [5]www.facebook.com/westmidlandspolice
YouTube: [6]www.youtube.com/westmidlandspolice

Flickr: [7]www.flickr.com/westmidlandspolice

[8]View all our social network links

Our vision: Serving our communities, protecting them from harm

References

J Roberts left an annotation ( 6 November 2022)

Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner

Published 4 November 2022

'I have already noted in my response to the Information Commissioner’s recent ICO25 consultation, that biometric capability in its widest sense has the potential to revolutionise the investigation and prevention of crime, and the prosecution of offenders. But equally, the manner in which that technology is used has the potential to jeopardise our very model of policing. All too frequently, the legislative frameworks that seek to underpin the use of biometric and surveillance technology by both public and private sectors have lagged behind the technologically feasible, resulting in early use before the full ethical and legal picture is clear. We must be able to have confidence in the whole biometric surveillance ecosystem, to be sure that what is technologically possible is only being done in a way that is both legally permissible and societally acceptable/expected.'

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

J Roberts left an annotation (10 February 2023)

Commissioner for the Retention and Use of Biometric Material Annual Report January 2021 – March 2022

And

Surveillance Camera Commissioner Annual Report March 2021 – March 2022

February 2023

'84. More worrying is the reported use of images of people who, while having been arrested, have never subsequently been charged or summonsed, for comparison against Live Facial Recognition ‘reads‘ and watchlists. As I record in Part 2 of this report, the use of facial recognition technology by the police has become one of the most contentious areas of biometric surveillance, not just in the UK but globally .

Part 2 – Facial Recognition and AI

96. The objective of the event was to gain a better understanding of how facial recognition technology is perceived by society in a policing and law enforcement context. Speaking at the event were the Forensic Science Regulator, a senior lecturer from Sheffield University and representatives from the Biometrics Institute, the Information Commissioner’s Office, South Wales Police, and Big Brother Watch.'

Appendix F: Facial recognition and AI

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

Initial analysis of the 2022 police survey returns
Published 14 November 2022

Is your force operating Facial Recognition Technology?

Only one force stated that it was using LFR (from the list supplied). Six had access to PND and two of those to CAID. One other mentioned access to Athena.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Chief Constables’ Council

Title: National Biometrics Function and National Facial Recognition Project 30/9/21

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/8...

Live facial recognition technology guidance published
22/3/22

https://www.college.police.uk/article/li...

The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner's response to the College of Policing APP on Live Facial Recognition 6/4/22

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-b...

Fact Sheet on live facial recognition used by police Home Office 2019
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov....

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Facial recognition used with CCTV - 'Face in the crowd' project

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J Roberts left an annotation (10 February 2023)

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