The NYPD uses sophisticated facial-recognition technology that likely affects anyone who recently had a mugshot taken, new court papers reveal, in a case that raises questions about oversight of the program.
Edited documents released through a lawsuit seeking information on the NYPD’s “Forensic Imaging System” hint at the vast scope of the searchable database that’s still shrouded in secrecy.
“NYPD’s face-recognition system appears to include data for every NYPD arrestee, meaning that each arrestee is subjected to face-recognition searches,” said papers filed by Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology.
Center attorney Stephanie Glaberson wrote there is “substantial evidence that face recognition is widely used by the department, and likely is used in every arrest.”
Such technology is widely used by police around the country. Some agencies, like the Michigan State Police, have posted their contracts for facial recognition online, according to Clare Garvie, an associate with the center.
The Michigan State Police contract resembles some of the NYPD’s contracts with at least three companies, Garvie said. Nevertheless, it took nine months of litigation before the NYPD turned over nearly 500 pages on the program, with redactions.
The center continues to argue that the NYPD is dragging its feet on the Freedom of Information Law request. A hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court on whether cops routinely use the technology was adjourned Wednesday, in part because an NYPD expert was unavailable due to medical reasons. A judge’s ruling on how commonly the technology is used will affect how much information is disclosed.
The NYPD has argued that publicizing information on facial recognition will undermine investigative techniques and give criminals helpful information when committing crimes.
The Forensic Imaging System has the capacity to store 20 million “records,” which are defined as “data created when an image, like a mug shot, is loaded into the database,” according to papers.
The system is fully integrated with fingerprint data.
None of the NYPD documents turned over to the center shows a policy regarding when a photograph of a person can be run through the system and compared with the department’s mug shot database, Garvie said.
That raised the prospect of a photo taken of a person doing something lawful — like participating in a protest — being run through the NYPD system.
“The NYPD has failed to ensure the public this will only be used for reasonable law enforcement purposes,” Garvie said.
The NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation. A city Law Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
