For the last two and one-half months, law enforcement officers across Ohio have been able to use facial recognition software made available by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office to electronically compare pictures of people with ID shots from the state’s driver license database.
Since the system was turned on June 6, police around the state have used the system nearly 2,700 times.
The system drew praise from DeWine at a news conference on Monday as a valuable tool for police work, while at the same time he tried to address concerns about privacy implications or potential misuse of such a system.
He announced he will appoint a task force to consider whether any guidelines need to be drafted for use of the system, or any safeguards need to be put in place in addition to those that cover use of the state’s electronic crime database already widely in use.
He said he intends to quickly name the task force of judges, law enforcement personnel, prosecutors and public defenders and hopes to have the panel’s report in 60 days.
“What we have begun now, is the culmination of about three years of work and discussion … and that is to bring to Ohio what the federal government has, what the FBI has, and what I believe 28 other states now have, and that is the ability to use facial recognition when law enforcement uses, and makes access to BMV records,” he said.
The system is accessible to police through the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, a computerized network that allows law enforcement to easily share data such as criminal histories of individuals, evidence submissions, missing child information or information about gangs. It also has provided access to Bureau of Motor Vehicle records.
“Historically, I don’t know, for decades, law enforcement has had the ability to pull up BMV information,” DeWine said. “They have the ability to look at the pictures”
The facial recognition technology allows officers to more quickly compare pictures they have of a person of interest with those in the driver license data. It measures key components of a person’s face, looking for matches with photos in the database, and provides a list of possible matches.
The process is nearly identical to what police do now, he said, except that because the search can be done electronically, it can be done more quickly.
Democrat David Pepper, DeWine’s likely opponent in the November 2014 general election, chided DeWine in a statement for not publicly announcing the launch of the system and making sure proper protections were in place to protect the privacy of photographed citizens.
“It is highly irresponsible for the Attorney General of Ohio to launch something this expansive and this intrusive into the lives of law-abiding citizens without ensuring the proper protocols were already in place to protect our privacy,” Pepper said. “To have kept this a secret for this long only makes it worse.”
In response, DeWine contended that the system was not a secret. He said he had discussed it in public meetings at least nine times previously around the state, and that his deputies have also. But he acknowledged that if he had it to do over again, he would have publicly announced its use when the system was turned on.
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