Investigators in the Dallas Police Department will begin using facial recognition technology to catch people suspected of crimes.
The police chief told a group of councilmembers Monday that they had waited years to see how the program worked in other departments.
They aim to use a somewhat controversial program. ClearView AI scrapes the internet for billions of pictures, including those on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It then uses artificial intelligence to identify people the police are looking for.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia told the committee they plan to roll the program out in six months and have already used it in individual cases. He points to one case, helping investigators find a suspected child pornographer. They identified the man after he was captured in the background of a trade show photo.
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NBC 6 in South Florida has covered that city's rollout of the ClearView AI. During a protest in 2020 that turned violent, police used the program to find and arrest a 25-year-old woman they saw on camera throwing rocks at police.
“We have used the technology to identify violent protestors, who assaulted police officers, who damaged police property, who set property on fire," Assistant Chief Armando Aguilar said at the time.
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“I think this will be a game changer," said Dallas Police Chief Garcia.
Garcia said his department waited to see other cities' issues with the technology, saying Dallas will have a "robust" policy in place. They won't allow police to go on fishing expeditions. Department policy will require investigators to look for specific suspects accused of specific crimes, peer-reviewed by a supervisor in the city's Real Time Crime Center.
“I have always had a lot of concerns about privacy, whether it is data or other things. This feels very comfortable for me. This feels like efficiency and just the next step," said city councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn from the dais.
Major Stephen Williams said it would help officers catch suspects in large crowds like sporting events and concerts.
“Those large scale events do create additional photos in the solution. The more publicity and attention we get from the public events when people post photos that helps in the individual process on how we identify individual people in places," said Williams.
The department will pay for the program with grant money outside the city budget. For context, the City of Miami contracted with ClearView AI for $12,000 in 2020.
