South Wales Police will deploy its Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology in Cardiff city centre on Friday, June 19, as part of efforts to support local neighbourhood policing.
The force says the technology is used to help locate wanted suspects, identify high-risk missing people and find individuals who may pose a risk to themselves or others.
Police have confirmed that the operation will be clearly advertised, with signage in place and marked vehicles present in areas where the technology is being used.
Officers from the Live Facial Recognition team will also be available to answer questions from members of the public and, where possible, provide demonstrations of how the technology works.
Before any deployment takes place, South Wales Police creates a watchlist of individuals it is seeking to locate. This can include people who are wanted by police, missing persons deemed to be at high risk, or those considered a danger to themselves or others.
Cameras positioned within a designated area stream images to the live facial recognition system, which compares faces captured by the cameras against those included on the watchlist.
If the system identifies a possible match, an alert is generated. A police officer then reviews the image and compares it with the person observed before deciding whether any further action is required.
South Wales Police stressed that people who are not on a watchlist cannot be identified by the technology.
The force also highlighted the safeguards surrounding data retention. Images that generate alerts are deleted immediately after use, or within 24 hours. Images and biometric data relating to people who do not trigger an alert are automatically deleted immediately.
While the facial recognition data is removed, the CCTV footage used during the deployment is retained separately for 31 days.
South Wales Police regularly uses Live Facial Recognition technology across the force area and publishes details of deployments in advance to help keep the public informed.
