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ADRIENNE P. SAMUELSPinellas' sheriff brushes away criticism on the way to being the first in the nation to use the system in cars.
Despite nationwide criticism of such software, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office will be the first in the country to outfit patrol cars with a computerized facial recognition system.
The plan calls for 50 vehicles to carry a standalone digital camera and special software hooked up to in-car laptops.
After a traffic stop or during an investigation, the deputies can take a photo, download it and then check it against the faces of at least a million felons, fugitives and people wanted by the FBI.
Sheriff Everett Rice on Wednesday said his deputies are not being instructed to search for criminals and that the photos would be taken only if there was "cause to arrest."
Drivers need not fear, he said.
"A match is not a grounds to make an arrest," said Rice. "It is only a pointer."
The system, administered by Massachusetts-based technology company Viisage, already is in place at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, the Criminal Justice Center and the Pinellas County Jail. In two years of operation, the system has not identified anyone sought by police.
The program is similar to one that was chucked last year by the Tampa Police Department and publicly criticized by Super Bowl 2001 attendees after they learned their faces were being surreptitiously scanned by Viisage as they walked into Raymond James Stadium.
The software picked up some low-key criminals, but no one on the FBI's wanted list.
Critics say the program is dangerously close to situations described in George Orwell's classic novel 1984, in which citizens are constantly being watched, and to the science fiction movie Minority Report, in which people are arrested on suspicion of crimes yet to be committed.
The American Civil Liberties Union is concerned about what, if any, mechanisms are in place to police the police in a photo situation.
"They claim they're not violating privacy because they're asking consent, but the real question is just how free will people be to refuse to take a picture?" said Alessandra Meetze, communications director for the Florida ACLU. "It goes beyond your traditional police work, and it subjects innocent people to this electric police lineup before any crime has been committed."
Deputies are not supposed to use the technology to take random pictures of people in public, said Rice.
Rather, deputies first are to ask permission and then take the photo if, for example, a driver does not have a license or vehicle registration or is unable to identify himself.
If a person's face doesn't match up, then that person's photo will be discarded.
And, Rice said, if you're not under arrest, it's perfectly okay to simply turn away from a deputy holding the camera.
"We don't force people," he added.
When Tampa police used a similar program to scan faces in the crowds in Ybor City, they found it didn't work.
No one was caught, they say, because the face scans can't accurately identify anyone in a large crowd. Nor can they build an entire face based solely around the bridge of a nose or the flick of an eyelid.
"At the time, we were not happy with the results we were getting," said Joe Durkin, Tampa police spokesman. "I think it's a great system in a controlled environment."
Rice said Pinellas sheriff's deputies will not be invading individuals' privacy or following in Tampa's footsteps.
"This is a different application and a different program," said Rice, adding that the system requires a clear, frontal picture of a person.
"If we were secretly taking pictures, that could be an invasion of privacy."
It's all part of an $8-million Department of Justice grant designed to boost community policing. Of that, it will cost $250,000 to equip the cars, plus an additional training period to teach deputies how to take good photos. At least one car outfitted with the equipment is already on the streets, and others to follow shortly.
A two-page standard operating procedure document details, among other things, how children's photos should be handled - by deleting immediately after a computer match.
It also states that a field interview report must be filed if a picture is taken, and that cameras can be used to record evidence not usually collected by forensic investigators.
Pinellas deputies will be able to compare local faces with those in databases in Broward, Miami-Dade, Leon, Hillsborough and Orange counties, said Lt. Jim Main, who is in charge of the system implementation.
Deputies should not be taking drive-by photos, Main said.
"The idea is to ID the person you have in front of you," he said, adding that some people lie about their names and addresses when talking to officers.
- Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 727 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com