FOI 118-2025 / Jan 2025 / Facial searches
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 118-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 27th January 2025 as follows:
I am writing to request the following information relating to PND Facial Recognition Searches:
Q1. The number of PND facial recognition searches conducted by your force in each month of 2024
Q2. A monthly breakdown of the reason for these searches
Q3. For searches of images of criminal suspects, a monthly breakdown of the offence types searched for.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There has been in excess of 1000 searches carried out in the specified period, and in order to determine a response for Q2 and Q3, it would be necessary to carry out a manual review of each and every search. This would take an inordinate amount of time and would significantly exceed 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. For Police forces in the UK, the ‘appropriate limit’ is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for these parts of the request, and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then Section 12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request. However, due to the extent of the searches required, I am unable to suggest a way to revise these parts of the request into ones which could be provided within the fees limit.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB