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Board wants say in use of face scans

 
Published July 19, 2001|Updated Sept. 10, 2005

If Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice wants to scan Florida driver's licenses for suspected criminals, he'll first have to get the County Commission's nod of approval.

Commissioners this week cleared the way for Rice to accept federal money for a digital face-scan system that can match suspects with those who have been booked into the county jail.

But expanding the system to include millions of state driver's license pictures is another matter. Commissioners said they want a say in that decision.

"If there's any attempt to broaden it and take it into any other kind of public arena, I would want very close public scrutiny and, of course, scrutiny by the board," Commissioner Bob Stewart said Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Office won a $3.5-million federal grant in December to match photos of crime suspects with databases of other photos, including Florida driver's licenses. The announcement was met with some criticism, as privacy rights advocates said using the pictures of everyday citizens goes too far.

Rice promised commissioners he would include them in any potential expansion of the system. That allayed concerns _ for now.

"I feel comfortable with it," said Commissioner Ken Welch. "It's really no different than fingerprints at this point."

Commissioners also were relieved to learn the program in Pinellas will not film the general public like face-scan technology currently in use in Ybor City or similar technology that was used during the Super Bowl.

"We never intended, and do not intend, to do that type of general public surveillance," Rice said.

For now, the Sheriff's Office wants to use the grant to update its jail video booking system. The current system, installed in 1994, is limiting and cannot be upgraded. The facial recognition program will allow more flexibility with images that can be shared with the media, as well as other law enforcement agencies.

Rice said the technology will prove invaluable when no evidence is left at a crime scene. It also will cut down on people who try to use aliases.

About this time next year, sheriff deputies will be able to scan police sketches and crime surveilance videotape in hopes of uncovering the person's identity.

As people are booked into the county jail, their photos will be scanned against more than 400,000 jail mug shots. The Sheriff's Office has already approached the Florida Department of Corrections about using its database and secured a verbal agreement to do so. Attempts also will be made to use databases from area police departments.

The computer software and equipment, from Viisage Technology, will do the rest.

It will measure a person's face: the distance between the person's pupils, from eye to nose, and other facial features. Then it will evaluate those calculation against photos found in the databases.

But the potential of misidentifying people kept critics buzzing.

"This is only a pointer system," Rice said. "It doesn't give us probably cause for arrest. It gives us a reason to investigate further."