Face recognition software to be launched by FBI to help police catch wanted criminals
by Kerry Mcqueeney, theunhivedmind.comOctober 8th 2011
Program will overhaul the FBI’s fingerprint database
Critics concerned about accuracy and civil liberties
A nationwide face recognition service is to be activated in some U.S. states by the FBI which will allow local police to identify suspects.
The program, part of a $1 billion overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint database, will begin by mid-January and will allow police to pinpoint wanted criminals more quickly and accurately,
Other biometric markers such as iris scans and voice recordings will also be implemented into the revamped database, it has been reported.
Bureau officials told Nextgov that the new face recognition feature could help provide the ‘missing link’ for police for unsolved cases.
Nick Megna, from the FBI’s criminal justice information services division, said: ‘[Law enforcement authorities] have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don’t know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case.’
It would allow officers to use the software to retrieve mugshots of suspects and rank them on in order of similarity to the features of the person in the picture.
Currently, FBI agents need to have the name of an individual to find a suspect’s mugshot within the 10 million images stored in the bureau’s Integrated Fingerprint Identification System.
The next generation identification system will allow analysts to upload a photograph and, depending on the number of results, could be given a list of potential matches within 15 minutes.
Megna added that the service does not provide a direct match.
The service is to be trialled in Michigan, Washington, Florida and North Carolina this winter before it is offered to other justice professionals across the country in 2014.
However, critics say they are concerned that the system could be abused, for instance, by swapping information with other government agencies to check immigration immigrants are in the country illegally.
‘The federal government is using cops to create a massive surveillance system’
There are also concerns about accuracy and civil liberties.
Sunita Patel, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said told Nextgov: ‘Any database of personal identity information is bound to have mistakes.
‘And with the most personal immutable traits like our facial features and fingerprints, the public can’t afford a mistake.’
She also said she was worried about local police gathering information for federal law enforcement.
She added: ‘The federal government is using local cops to create a massive surveillance system.’
Questions were also raised over whether innocent Americans would be identified by the facial recognition feature by, for instance, retrieving mugshots of people who had only been arrested and were not guilty of any crime.
Megna responded by saying the system would not change the way FBI works and serves to help local police to identify suspects in pictures.
He added that the bureau had in place an elaborate system to protect existing databases of fingerprints, palm prints, mug shots and all other criminal data.
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