MassPrivatelLondon, Ohio – Without informing the public and without first reviewing security rules for the system, Ohio law enforcement officers started using facial recognition technology more than two months ago, scanning databases of driver’s license photos and police mug shots to identify crime suspects, The Enquirer has learned.
After they launched the system, officials in Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office weighed what new security protocols to establish for the state’s law enforcement database and wondered when they’d be ready to tell the public about it. In hundreds of pages of e-mails and memos reviewed by The Enquirer, officials also disagreed about whether the system was in beta testing or in a full launch and promised to make changes to the website that would be used to upload license photos, which was vulnerable to hackers.
“As a society, do we want to have total surveillance? Do we want to give the government the ability to identify individuals wherever they are . . . without any immediate probable cause?” Georgetown law professor Laura Donohue said to the Post. “A police state is exactly what this turns into if everybody who drives has to lodge their information with the police.”
Since June, police officers have performed 2,600 searches using the new database feature, which is designed to analyze a snapshot or, in some cases, security camera image, and identify the person by matching the photo with his or her driver’s license photo or police mug shot.
DeWine last week told The Enquirer he didn’t think the public needed to be notified about the launch because 26 other states have facial recognition databases. Now, more than two months into the launch, he’s creating an advisory group of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials to make recommendations for updated rules for the system’s use.
The facial recognition technology is aimed in part at leveraging the growing prevalence of security cameras in daily life. Ohioans are on camera in parks, schools, elevators, stores, highways and parking garages. Cameras track boats on the Ohio River, gamblers at casinos, revelers at concerts and sometimes people walking in their own neighborhood.
In Cincinnati alone, the police department can tap into 118 security cameras, but hopes to increase that number to 1,000 by the end of 2014. At least hundreds more are available to them if business owners hand over the images for investigations. The cameras can help to solve crimes, but opponents question whether the loss of privacy is worth the gains.
People with access to the new system – Ohio’s law enforcement officers and civilian employees of police departments – could match any photo of people on the street to photos in the database and gain access to personal information.
When a law enforcement officer or employee conducts a facial recognition search, he or she uploads a snapshot or security camera image of someone who needs to be identified. The system compares the image with more than 21 million mug shots and license photos and returns up to 12 most likely to match the snapshot. The officer can then review the photos to judge whether any of them might be the same person in the uploaded image.
Straight-on, high-resolution photos work the best in the system. That means security-camera stills, which are often shot from above and which are often grainy, don’t often return accurate results. Photos in which people are wearing glasses or smiling also aren’t as easy to match.
“The fact that over half of states use (facial recognition technology), the fact that the FBI has used it, the fact that we have controls in (the online database) that work in the sense that we could prosecute people … all of those indicate to me that what we have is adequate.”
The database retains Ohioans’ current driver’s license photos and their previous two photos. Paired with the photo is all the personal information found on a driver’s license – sex, address, birth date, height, weight and eye and hair color. Since the use of driver’s license photos is governed by Ohio and federal law, residents don’t receive anything when they get their license photo taken that explains how the government may use the photo, said Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokesman Joe Andrews.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130825/NEWS010801/308250087/WATCHDOG-Ohioans-not-told-how-license-photos-used?gcheck=1
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/17/say-cheese-some-states-put-drivers-license-photos-in-facial-recognition-database-for-law-enforcement-use/
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http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-youre-not-being-told-12-of.html
“Since June, police officers have performed 2,600 searches using the new database feature..”
…but no mention of how many matches it made, of if this was successful at all in identifying people.
I still think this “facial recognition” technology is a pipe-dream that they just can’t seem to get working as promised, so instead they’re just using it as a propaganda tool to convince you that they’re watching your every move and can identify everyone. They’re always quick to tell you how many cameras they can “tap into”, and how everyone is being watched, but to the best of my knowledge, there hasn’t been one criminal or “terrorist” yet who has been captured as a result of this technology.
And the article itself points out that the technology can be defeated by something as simple as a smile. If that’s the case, it doesn’t work.
Wisconsin just recently started issuing driver’s licenses that also serve as a Federal ID. I see Wisconsin is a state that is using facial recognition technology. As a part of the Federal ID driver’s licenses, they also install a RFID chip that allows police and border patrol agents, as well as Security guards in Federal buildings, to pull up your file before they even approach you. 10-15 seconds in a microwave will disable the RFID chip. I don’t like broadcasting my very presence in a scenario where pigs may be present.