ACLU slams facial-recognition software

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By Todd R. Weiss

(IDG) -- Facial recognition software being used as a crime-fighting tool by police in Tampa, Florida, has come under criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In an announcement Friday, the ACLU charged that "the technology does not deliver security benefits sufficient to justify the Orwellian dangers they (sic) represent." The ACLU makes its case in a six-page report called "Drawing a Blank: The failure of facial recognition technology in Tampa, Florida."

Tampa police officials dispute the report's findings, arguing that it's a new technology still in the development stages and it shows promise for police work.

According to the report, the New York-based ACLU analyzed police logs that detailed the use of the Face-IT software, which is made by Visionics Corp. of Jersey City, New Jersey. The software was in use last year from June 29 through August 11 in conjunction with outdoor surveillance cameras along Seventh Avenue in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood, where bars and restaurants are prevalent.

"Facial recognition as a surveillance tool doesn't work," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the ACLU and one of the authors of the report. "There's a reason why Fortune 500 companies haven't adopted facial recognition as an identification tool."

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The software works with a database of known criminals, sex offenders and juvenile runaways, using an algorithm to determine if a face seen on a security camera fits a face in the database. The cameras on the street are monitored remotely by police and a private security firm.

The problem, according to the ACLU, is that Tampa's own police logs, obtained through Florida open records laws, showed that the software often could not tell men from women and gave false positive IDs.

"This is being portrayed somehow as a law enforcement magic bullet but is actually shooting blanks," Steinhardt said. To the ACLU, the fear is that such technologies allow police to stop and harass innocent people. The Face-IT software used in Tampa had yet to lead a single arrest or identification, he said.

The report calls the software "an overhyped failure that has been seemingly abandoned by police" because it isn't being used.

Katie Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Tampa police, disputed the ACLU's contention that the software hasn't been used since August because it doesn't work. And she said it's expected to be redeployed next week.

Instead, the software was taken off-line to "enhance the database" but was apparently never turned back on, she said. "I don't have a good answer," Hughes said when asked why the department is no longer using the technology. "We're looking at why somebody dropped the ball on it, why it wasn't being used."

The police say the software was aimed at helping to proactively fight crime in an entertainment district filled with bars and restaurants.

Once redeployed, the software will have a major improvement, she said. In the past, only one of the 36 surveillance cameras on Seventh Street could use the face recognition software at one time; The newest version will allow all 36 cameras to use it.

She acknowledged: "We have never made an arrest as a result" of the software, but noted it was only used for about six weeks and was only monitoring one of 36 cameras. "There were some false positives in the beginning, we never hid that. But it was early on with a new technology. The critics are always going to be there."

Frances Zelazny, a spokeswoman for Visionics, said that Tampa is the first U.S. city to use the software for surveillance. It's being provided at no charge for one year on a trial basis. The software is in use abroad in such places as London and Iceland, she said.

Zelazny said critics such as the ACLU are wrong about the potential pitfalls of the software. It's not a replacement for good police work, she said, but a tool that can help establish reasonable suspicion that can then be further investigated by an officer. "It's not removing that human element from the process," she explained.

"You can't arrest someone based on that," Zelazny said. "It's just not sufficient."

Eric Hemmendinger, a security analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston, said the whole facial recognition issue could eventually be moot because of the massive amount of work the software must do in a very brief time frame.

"The suppliers seem to be reaching a bit and the customers seem to be grasping at straws," he said. On one hand, the software asks too much information, while on the other hand it simply doesn't have enough information to make a proper ID, he explained, adding: "I think the ACLU is looking for an opportunity to cut this stuff off at the knees."