Facial Recognition (1510/20)
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information relating to West Midlands Police’s use of Automatic Facial Recognition technology (AFR) at Premier League football matches.
- a) The total number of people subject to a football banning order (FBO) identified using AFR at football matches.
In addition, if held
- b) The total number of people subject to a FBO identified without use of AFR at football matches.
In addition, if held
- c) The total number of people identified as “positive matches” using AFR at football matches.
- d) The total number of “false positive” identifications of people using AFR at football matches.
I am seeking this information for all past deployments of AFR at Premier League football matches (both inside and outside stadiums). If possible, I would appreciate if you could confirm the following:
- a) At which Premier League football grounds AFR has been deployed.
- b) The date on which AFR was first deployed at each ground.
- c) The date of the most recent deployment of AFR at each ground.
- d) The total number of Premier League football matches at which AFR has been deployed.
Response
Please see attached.
In addition to the attached response West Midlands Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information relevant to this request as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 23(5) Information supplied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies
Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest in this case.
Confirming or denying the existence of whether any other information is held would contravene the constrictions laid out within Section 23 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in that this stipulates a generic bar on disclosure of any information applied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies.
This exemption and explanatory notes is shown here:
No inference can be taken from this refusal that any further information relevant to your request does or does not exist.