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ACLU Files Open Records Request for Tampa Face-Recognition Surveillance
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July 6, 2001
Click here to read the Joint Statement of House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-TX, and the ACLU
TAMPA -- In response to the Tampa Police Department's use of high-tech software to scan the faces of thousands of unsuspecting visitors and residents of the City of Tampa, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida recently sent a letter to city officials demanding that they hand over documents outlining just how they're going to retain or discard the captured mug shots, which are to be cross-checked with police files.
"This kind of high-tech overkill goes way beyond the traditional video surveillance methods you see at your local 7-11," said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida. "It allows police officers to bypass individual consent and conduct searches at a whim without any evidence of wrongdoing.
In his June 29 letter to Assistant City Attorney Kirby C. Rainsberger, Marshall requested a copy of the police department's records retention policy pertaining to the use of a surveillance system during the SuperBowl last January. The software digitized the facial images of fans in an attempt to match them with mug-shot "depositories" of people with criminal records. At the time, the police department claimed to be checking for terrorists, but it identified only pick pockets and ticket scalpers.
That same type of facial identification system is now being used by the Tampa Police in Ybor City, where 36 cameras mounted above the entertainment district's busy streets are constantly watching and scanning the faces of passersby in search of a criminal match. Called FaceIt, the software used in downtown Tampa was developed by Visionics Corp. of Jersey City. Like the technology used during the SuperBowl, this program also matches digital face scans against photographs of those with criminal records held in a database at the police control room. The database itself is maintained jointly by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Tampa Police Department.
"I guarantee you this will also lead to high-tech racial profiling," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. "People of color who are 'not where they should be' will be followed by the cameras, identified and then hassled. A new crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
- Click here to read the second public records request on the use of biometric identification systems in Tampa
