City dumps facial-recognition program

The Tampa Police Department has dumped its facial-recognition surveillance system after it failed to make any arrests in two years.

Tampa was one of two cities to give the FaceIt system a go back in June 2001. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks it was touted as the ultimate investigative tool in fighting crime and defending the homeland from terrorists.

Its record proved otherwise, reports the Tampa Tribune.

"It's just proven not to have any benefit to us,'' Capt. Bob Guidara, a police department spokesman, told the paper.

For the past two years, images of ordinary citizens captured by cameras positioned around Ybor City were cross-referenced with a database of more than 24,000 mug shots. Special software manufactured by Identix Inc., was used to try to match facial characteristics of wanted felons with the scanned images.

The Tribune reports the software failed to make a single positive identification.

Civil liberties advocates decried the city's decision to serve as a test market for the FaceIt system, arguing it was an invasion of privacy. Police spokesman Joe Durkin stresses, however, the chief's decision to pull the plug was purely based on the system's lack of performance.

The move is a hollow victory for privacy proponents. While the department is abandoning the use of the facial-recognition software, it will continue to rely on the 36 surveillance cameras to fight crime in the making.

"Officers have been able to make arrests involving illegal drug dealing, fights and things of that nature,'' Durkin told the Tribune. "One officer monitoring the cameras has been able to be the eyes of many in foiling this type of activity."

Despite Tampa's experience, the manufacturer, which calls itself the "world leader in fingerprint and facial biometrics," claims to have several other customers. According to its website, FaceIt technology is "widely deployed" around the world.

While the company provided the software free to Tampa, according to the Tribune, the city of Virginia Beach, Va., purchased it through a $150,000 federal grant matched with $50,000 of its own money.