West Yorkshire Police

West Yorkshire Police uses both live facial recognition and retrospective facial recognition. The Information Commissioner's Office audited the force between June 2025 and March 2026 as one of five in a consensual audit programme, publishing its executive summary on 18 August 2026.

The audit gave West Yorkshire a rating of reasonable assurance of compliance for BOTH live and retrospective facial recognition. That is the stronger of the two outcomes among the audited forces on the retrospective side, where compliance was generally weaker across the programme.

The audits consisted of policy and procedure reviews, interviews, records inspections, technology demonstrations and a virtual review of evidence documentation. Across all five forces the ICO made 107 recommendations covering compliance and best practice, every one of which was accepted or partially accepted. Recommendations applying to all forces include developing internal audit procedures, comprehensive logging of facial recognition use, and allowing sufficient time to carry out data protection impact assessments.

Operationally, a deployment in Bradford city centre from 19 to 21 August 2026 identified four people wanted for criminal offences, all of whom were arrested. One was further detained on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after being found carrying a knuckle duster.