Posted on 10/13/2006 4:59:17 PM PDT by SandRat
PHOENIX -- A new state program to link video cameras with facial-identification software is causing some alarm.
Alessander Meetze, director of the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the program, unveiled this week by Gov. Janet Napolitano, is unnecessary intrusion into individual privacy of people who are guilty of nothing but walking or driving in public places.
That assessment is disputed by Napolitano. She said the system is designed to help find terrorists and other "people of interest."
Anyway, the governor said, many cities and government agencies already have cameras which are monitored. All this program does, she said, is speeds up what police already can do: Use driver license photos to track people down.
But Meetze said there is a big difference between police watching TV monitors of live cameras trained on public places and actually scanning the photos of those who pass in front of those cameras.
"We see this as the equivalent of asking for ID without having probable cause," she said. In essence, Meetze said, it subjects everyone -- whether a suspect or not -- to an "electronic police line-up."
The system, developed by Phoenix-based Hummingbird Defense Systems, links cameras with facial recognition software to digitize the images of the people it sees. It then compares that with the more than 8 million images the state already has on file -- mostly the photos taken for driver licenses.
Steve Greschner, the company's chief executive officer, said in its most basic form it allows police who have a photo of a suspect, such as from a bank robbery, to compare it with the photos of people on file. Napolitano said police already have access to that driver license photo database.
What the new technology does, he said, is scrap the need for police to manually compare photos they have with the database. Instead, it can compare the photo of the wanted person with the entire database in less than 15 seconds.
But what it also can do is look for what the governor called "people of interest."
For example, she said, the database can be linked with cameras at the border and at airports and bus terminals to look for human smugglers and terrorists.
These are people whose pictures law enforcement has. The system, which is based at the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, then can compare it with the real-time photos being fed from cameras.
The cameras at airports and other secure locations aren't the only source of photos: Napolitano noted there already are cameras throughout many cities that could be linked to the system. And the governor said she wants an emphasis of putting cameras at schools to improve campus safety.
"In this way, with a camera in a school, you can detect whether somebody's coming on the school lines who's going to 'ping' the system," she said, such as a known sex offender.
"And then you can go out, you can call the school and get out there and say, 'What are you doing? Get out of here,' " she said.
Napolitano said she also hopes to link existing cameras operated by the federal government at the border with the state database.
Meetze said all this is very intrusive. "This is actually cross-checking 'mug shots' of ordinary people with databases before any crime has been committed," she said. "They're subjecting everybody who walks down the street to an electronic police line-up."
Meetze said what makes the intrusion even more offensive is that it may not be effective. She cited a study done at the Palm Beach Airport where a similar system failed to recognize volunteers more than half the time.
And Meetze said criminals -- those who don't want to be detected -- can fool the system simply by wearing sunglasses or turning their heads slightly.
Ray Churay, chief deputy of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, said while the system can 'ping' when a camera finds someone being sought, people most should not fear that a record of their travels are being recorded.
He said each time a camera scans a face and creates a digital equation, it compares it to the list of those people whom the computer has been told to monitor. Churay said if there is no match, the equation disappears and there is no permanent record.
That is in contrast with another system unveiled less than two months ago which uses cameras mounted on Department of Public Safety patrol cars to a database of stolen and wanted vehicles.
While that system also 'pings' when it gets a hit, it actually can store the list of every license scanned for up to three months. And that information uses global positioning system technology to say exactly when and where that vehicle was seen.
Why am I not surprised at this?
The ACLU opposes anything that would be good for America and its security.
It disturbs me. What if someone looks a whole lot like someone who has a criminal record, but they aren't that person? This is just way too Big Brotherish for me.
Nah, actually this works very well. They take dozens of points of comparison angles from your face. It is very accurate. You wear a beard and glasses it doesn't fool it. If you gain or lose 20 pounds it has a hard time detecting you but that is about it.
I don't mind when somebody comes up to me and thinks they might have served with me in the armed forces, went to high school with me, etc. It happens about once a month no matter where I am for some reason, no matter where in the country I am.
I guess I will need to start being able to quickly prove to the three cops running up to me that I'm not somebody they would like to throw down to the ground and handcuff as well.
Read reply #6 and calm your trepidations.
What's their view on fingerprints?
Yes, and they just keep chuggin along apparently unchecked. Seems like no one wants to take on the ACLU. This is a commie organization. Wake up America!
That's for sure.
The last time I checked we still had a Fourth Ammendment.
This is a commie organization. Wake up America!
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Yes, and that should read WAKE UP WASHINGTON, DC...but they have forgotten what country they work for...
It is really bad when the ACLU is so far left from a Rat Governor.
The Marxist Homosexual Predators in charge of the ACLU hate America and will do anything to protect the enemies of America.
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