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entry · p2026-09-06-074 · validated

AFR Locate (South Wales Police live facial recognition)

Over the 50 deployments that were undertaken in 2017 and 2018, around 500,000 faces may have been scanned
tech
afr-locate
passes the definition as
a live facial-recognition matcher using face-embedding models fit to face image data
from
2017-05
region
UK
domain
agency
side
loss
people
500,000 faces scanned (2019-09-04)
effect
50 deployments (2019-09-04) — biometric processing of everyone passing the cameras, without consent or notice, over 50 deployments in 2017–2018
reversible
yes
who holds the switch
owner:South Wales Police
attribution
named
source kind
primary
the statistic
The High Court in R (Bridges) v CCSWP, 4 September 2019, recorded about 50 AFR Locate deployments between May 2017 and April 2019, with around 500,000 faces scanned over the 2017–2018 deployments.
source
https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2019/2341
proposed by
researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2012-2019
received
2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00
harvest report
impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2012-2019.md

Rulings, in order

  1. 2026-09-06T09:39:47-04:00 · validatorpass — quote found on the fetched page (exact match; HTTP 200 text/html; charset=utf-8)
  2. 2026-09-06T09:59:36-04:00 · sessionseverity — scanned once, reversible, no consequence for the unmatched
The proposal as it arrived (JSON)
{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-074",
 "received": "2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-2012-2019",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "0fbfe528f5fed2a7",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "afr-locate",
  "tech_name": "AFR Locate (South Wales Police live facial recognition)",
  "definition": "a live facial-recognition matcher using face-embedding models fit to face image data",
  "from": "2017-05",
  "region": "UK",
  "domain": "agency",
  "side": "loss",
  "people": {
   "n": 500000,
   "unit": "faces scanned",
   "date": "2019-09-04"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 50,
   "unit": "deployments",
   "date": "2019-09-04",
   "what": "biometric processing of everyone passing the cameras, without consent or notice, over 50 deployments in 2017–2018"
  },
  "reversible": true,
  "switch": "owner:South Wales Police",
  "statistic": "The High Court in R (Bridges) v CCSWP, 4 September 2019, recorded about 50 AFR Locate deployments between May 2017 and April 2019, with around 500,000 faces scanned over the 2017–2018 deployments.",
  "source": "https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2019/2341",
  "quote": "Over the 50 deployments that were undertaken in 2017 and 2018, around 500,000 faces may have been scanned",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "primary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-2012-2019.md"
}