The agency doesn't own facial recognition software, spokesman
"As for particulars on facial recognition hardware and software, please contact the
Jones also indicated that the
Jones would not say how long the
For years, and under two separate mayoral administrations, city officials responded to questions about facial recognition by saying the local government didn't own any of the software, or by talking specifically about the Real Time Crime Center. The Real Time Crime Center, is the city's video surveillance hub and has a policy against the use of facial recognition.
But the center is part of the
In July, the
"Of course the city doesn't deploy any facial recognition technology in a law enforcement purpose," Real Time Crime Center administrator
Later in that meeting, Councilwoman
"Jonathan, we don't have either of these in the city, right?"
"We do not currently employ any technology that does that in 2020," Wisbey said.
"There certainly appears to be consensus around not utilizing the face surveillance systems or characteristic tracking software, that that's not something we're interested in," Moreno said.
In November, the
"This is a distinction without a difference. The result is the same, that the city's law enforcement agency is using facial recognition even if it is using other agencies to do it," Hamilton said. "This is a disturbing admission by NOPD, indicating that the department and other city officials have repeatedly misled the public and surreptitiously deployed facial recognition software without public approval or oversight."
"The term employ used in the [public records request] response might've referred to ownership of the tool itself, which we don't," Jones said. "I apologize for any misunderstanding. ... Again, the word 'employ' was used in the context of ownership. The consensus between the PRR and NOPD response is that the NOPD does not own facial recognition tools."
In a Thursday letter, the
"There have been many discussions around whether or not the city has been using facial recognition, and the answer we were given was always no," Thompson said. "There is a continued lack and flat out neglect of transparency."
'This Technology is Flawed'
The use of facial recognition came to light in part because of the council's recent work with Eye on Surveillance on a proposed ordinance to limit how the the administration may use surveillance technology. The proposed ordinance is sponsored by CouncilmanWilliams has run as a criminal justice reformer, and the surveillance ordinance is one of several criminal justice reforms he's introduced this year, with limited success.
The councilman's chief of staff,
"We were working under the understanding and under the representation that we were not using facial recognition as a city, and therefore there would be no issue with an outright ban on facial recognition technology in our surveillance ordinance," Lampkin said. "That call was the first call when we heard directly from the superintendent, directly from the NOPD, that they were in fact using facial recognition technology."
That call occurred just hours before Hurricane Zeta made landfall on
"That kind of 11th hour revelation, for lack of a better word, when we've been told the opposite, obviously impacted our process," Lampkin said. "But it's new information that we're going to engage with them over the next couple weeks to find out what the hell is going on and how far reaching it is."
City Councilman
"I still have not been told we're using facial recognition, and I still have reservations about it," he said. "If it turns out that we are using it, I'm disappointed, No. 1, that we're using it, and No. 2, that we were told that we weren't."
At the June surveillance hearing, Banks said: "I am vehemently opposed to facial recognition technology for arresting folks because in too many instances it proves not to work."
Banks raised the case of
The prosecutor ended up dismissing the charge and apologized. The prosecutor's office said the case should never have gone so far, citing the "unreliability" of facial recognition software, "especially as it relates to people of color."
Facial recognition has been criticized over privacy concerns and because there is evidence showing it often misidentifies Black people and people of color at a higher rate than White people. In 2019, the
Ferguson on Friday said he understood concerns over bias in facial recognition technology. But he said he thinks it can be a valuable tool if used responsibly.
At the June council meeting, Banks said that even though Williams' case in
"The trauma of seeing her father arrested may never leave that child, and we have no way to know how it will continue to manifest itself in her," Banks said. "This month Amazon, Microsoft and
No Existing Policies
In June, Wisbey, the administration's chief technology officer, told the City Cvouncil that instead of blanket bans on certain technologies, he recommended creating clear regulations with actionable consequences."I think that there is this potential for abuse when you use any type of technology really, not just these surveillance technologies," Wisbey said. "The way we have tried to mitigate those risks ... is to really look at the policies governing that. And to say rather than, 'This technology is bad or evil or not something we should ever use,' say 'You know what, this technology is potentially problematic so we need to be very prescriptive of how we use it. And we need to ensure there are real life consequences if someone violates those regulations.' "
But the
It's also unclear what kind of tracking and auditing the
Said Hamilton, the
Jones said police don't use facial recognition to determine probable cause for an arrest. "It's important to note that the use [of] facial recognition software is for investigative purposes only, not to determine probable cause for a crime."
Hamilton wasn't comforted by that statement, saying it was "frankly absurd."
In the case of Williams' false arrest, the
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