Ethnic minority individuals are four times more likely than their white counterparts to be chosen for certain police facial scans, according to official data from South Wales police. Internal figures for 2025 show that 24% of people selected for facial recognition checks were from ethnic minorities, compared to this group making up only 7% of the total population in the area.
South Wales police, which covers cities including Cardiff and Swansea, has been a pioneer in using AI-enabled facial recognition technology. The latest figures relate to officers using smartphones to capture a person's face and running the image through an algorithm called “Neoface” to match it against custody mugshots and other face databases. Most scans are initiated due to suspicion of crimes.
Civil liberties campaigners have described these ethnicity figures as “alarming”. South Wales police stated that the figures raise “concerns about disproportionality” and confirmed they are reviewing their approach. The data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, covers a full year of use in 2025.
The force is one of the first UK constabularies to routinely use this “officer-initiated facial recognition” (OIFR) technology. This system aims to identify suspects, wanted criminals, missing people who do not provide details, and individuals found unconscious, uncommunicative, or deceased.