 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
U.S. zooms in on Ybor City cameras
By ANGELA MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- The Tampa City Council quietly approved the use of facial recognition software in Ybor City surveillance cameras two months ago, without any debate. In fact, some council members didn't know they'd approved it until a reporter told them eight weeks later. Now, though, the issue could be headed for debate in Congress. In a most unlikely union, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, joined with the American Civil Liberties Union in calling Wednesday for congressional hearings on the controversial surveillance technology. Armey and the ACLU also want the General Accounting Office to investigate whether federal grant money is being used to help companies develop facial recognition technology. Tampa is the only city in the nation using the software, which scans faces in public places and compares them to a database containing the faces of wanted criminals. That Armey and the ACLU would ever issue a joint statement is news in itself, admitted Richard Diamond, an Armey spokesman. "It is a 'Man bites dog' sort of thing," Diamond said. "But both ends of the spectrum are attacking this issue. We hope that makes cities like Tampa and Virginia Beach (which wants the software) pause before they continue with this." Diamond said Armey and the ACLU want Tampa to stop using the system while the facial recognition technology is evaluated. "Your council members probably read it and were thinking, 'Oh, this is pro-safety,' " Diamond said. "But these well-intentioned items can be misused and turned to purposes that were never intended." Visionics Corp. developed what the technology it calls Face-It. After using a similar program from a different company at January's Super Bowl, without making any arrests, Visionics and the Tampa Police Department turned to Ybor City. The Visionics agreement was added to the agenda of the May 10 City Council meeting and approved with no debate. The system was installed on a free, one-year trial basis with an option to purchase for $30,000. Face-It was linked to 36 cameras through the Centro Ybor entertainment complex along E Seventh Avenue and now scans the face of every pedestrian along that stretch. Television stations and newspapers covered the first day the system was used. The reaction was immediate. Critics from across the country decried the technology as an invasion of privacy. Some council members, once they learned what they had approved, expressed second thoughts. The City Council can end the experiment. At the next council meeting, July 19, members can vote to revisit the issue, Council Chairman Charlie Miranda said. They can decide to open the matter to debate and take another vote. But some council members, like Mary Alvarez, still support the software. "I certainly do," Alvarez said. "I have nothing to hide ... You're getting your picture taken. So what? If maybe one person gets arrested because they looked like another person, well, that's a very small percentage." Miranda, Gwen Miller and Shawn Harrison all think the issue should be discussed, but they still want to give the software a chance. "If you suspend the test case, realistically, you have nothing to test," Miranda said. Council members Bob Buckhorn, Linda Saul-Sena and Rose Ferlita could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Some critics plan to don masks and gather Saturday at Centro Ybor. The Tampa Bay Action Group is organizing an anti-Face-It protest, said community radio station's WMNF-FM 88.5's Mitch Perry.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
