The Milwaukee Police Department’s proposal to use facial recognition technology to solve crimes has sparked public concern over civil liberties, and increased calls for the department to create a Standard Operating Procedure to regulate the tech.During a Fire and Police Commission meeting on Thursday, commission members heard three hours of public comment from activists opposing facial recognition. James Stein from the ACLU said, “This is a direct attack on our civil liberties and it impacts our right to speak out.””Facial recognition discourages people from attending public meetings, protests,” said Nadiyah Johnson, another speaker who opposed the FRT.Facial recognition, or FRT, is the technology that takes an image, like a single frame from surveillance video, and compares the image to a database of photos of known individuals to help identify the person in the video. Last spring, the Milwaukee Police Department announced it plans to use tech company Biometrica. In a June Equal Rights Commission meeting, the department said it would provide access to 2.5 million booking photos and jail records, in exchange for years of free access to Biometrica’s service. For almost a year, the department has been working on a policy to establish guidelines for the technology before entering into a contract with Biometrica. At Thursday’s Fire and Police Commission meeting, Chief Jeffrey Norman, who attended virtually, said the department still has not signed any contract to use FRT in the city, and there isn’t a draft SOP for its use, either.Delafield police have a policy that limits who can use the software and those officers have specific training and are subject to audits, as well as one of the most important guardrails: officers will not make an arrest based solely on a facial recognition comparison.Activists in attendance at Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission Thursday repeatedly said they felt left in the dark about MPD’s use of facial recognition technology, after the department admitted it has actually already been using the tech in investigations. In a city meeting last spring, MPD chief of staff Heather Hough said Milwaukee police have asked neighboring jurisdictions with FRT to find matches for them.Much of the concern was also about FRT being used by federal agents in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.One attendee said, “This federal government has shown that they don’t play by the rules, and this federal government will just take what they want.”Commissioner Jeff Spence said, “It seems we started this process on the wrong foot.”The commission cannot make policy itself, but will make a recommendation to the Common Council to approve or deny the police department’s policy.
The Milwaukee Police Department’s proposal to use facial recognition technology to solve crimes has sparked public concern over civil liberties, and increased calls for the department to create a Standard Operating Procedure to regulate the tech.
During a Fire and Police Commission meeting on Thursday, commission members heard three hours of public comment from activists opposing facial recognition.
James Stein from the ACLU said, “This is a direct attack on our civil liberties and it impacts our right to speak out.”
“Facial recognition discourages people from attending public meetings, protests,” said Nadiyah Johnson, another speaker who opposed the FRT.
Facial recognition, or FRT, is the technology that takes an image, like a single frame from surveillance video, and compares the image to a database of photos of known individuals to help identify the person in the video. Last spring, the Milwaukee Police Department announced it plans to use tech company Biometrica. In a June Equal Rights Commission meeting, the department said it would provide access to 2.5 million booking photos and jail records, in exchange for years of free access to Biometrica’s service.
For almost a year, the department has been working on a policy to establish guidelines for the technology before entering into a contract with Biometrica. At Thursday’s Fire and Police Commission meeting, Chief Jeffrey Norman, who attended virtually, said the department still has not signed any contract to use FRT in the city, and there isn’t a draft SOP for its use, either.
Delafield police have a policy that limits who can use the software and those officers have specific training and are subject to audits, as well as one of the most important guardrails: officers will not make an arrest based solely on a facial recognition comparison.
Activists in attendance at Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission Thursday repeatedly said they felt left in the dark about MPD’s use of facial recognition technology, after the department admitted it has actually already been using the tech in investigations. In a city meeting last spring, MPD chief of staff Heather Hough said Milwaukee police have asked neighboring jurisdictions with FRT to find matches for them.
Much of the concern was also about FRT being used by federal agents in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
One attendee said, “This federal government has shown that they don’t play by the rules, and this federal government will just take what they want.”
Commissioner Jeff Spence said, “It seems we started this process on the wrong foot.”
The commission cannot make policy itself, but will make a recommendation to the Common Council to approve or deny the police department’s policy.
