Milwaukee Police Consider Trading Millions of Mugshots For Free Facial Recognition Access (jsonline.com) 66
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police are mulling a trade: 2.5 million mugshots for free use of facial recognition technology. Officials from the Milwaukee Police Department say swapping the photos with the software firm Biometrica will lead to quicker arrests and solving of crimes. But that benefit is unpersuasive for those who say the trade is startling, due to the concerns of the surveillance of city residents and possible federal agency access. "We recognize the very delicate balance between advancement in technology and ensuring we as a department do not violate the rights of all of those in this diverse community," Milwaukee Police Chief of Staff Heather Hough said during an April 17 meeting.
For the first time, Milwaukee police officials detailed their plans to use the facial recognition technology during a meeting of the city's Fire and Police Commission, the oversight body for those departments. In the past, the department relied on facial recognition technology belonging to neighboring police agencies. In an April 24 email, Hough said the department has not entered into an agreement with any facial recognition and the department intends to continue engaging the public before doing so. The department will discuss it at a future meeting of the city's Public Safety and Health Committee next, she said. "While we would like to acquire the technology to assist in solving cases, being transparent with the community that we serve far outweighs the urgency to acquire," she said in an email.
Officials said the technology alone could not be used as probable cause to arrest someone and the only authorized uses would be when there's basis to believe criminal activity has happened or could happen, or a threat to public safety is imminent. Hough said the department intended to craft a policy that would ensure no one is arrested solely based on facial recognition matches. That reassurance and others from police officials came as activists, residents and some public officials voiced concern.
For the first time, Milwaukee police officials detailed their plans to use the facial recognition technology during a meeting of the city's Fire and Police Commission, the oversight body for those departments. In the past, the department relied on facial recognition technology belonging to neighboring police agencies. In an April 24 email, Hough said the department has not entered into an agreement with any facial recognition and the department intends to continue engaging the public before doing so. The department will discuss it at a future meeting of the city's Public Safety and Health Committee next, she said. "While we would like to acquire the technology to assist in solving cases, being transparent with the community that we serve far outweighs the urgency to acquire," she said in an email.
Officials said the technology alone could not be used as probable cause to arrest someone and the only authorized uses would be when there's basis to believe criminal activity has happened or could happen, or a threat to public safety is imminent. Hough said the department intended to craft a policy that would ensure no one is arrested solely based on facial recognition matches. That reassurance and others from police officials came as activists, residents and some public officials voiced concern.
I do not consent (Score:5, Insightful)
I do not consent
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You where not asked.
And yeah... I'm being facetious. But this is the whole problem with this sort of tech. We aren't being given an opt-out and with law enforcement its so easy to just say "Hey we arent going after citizens, were going after bad guys". Then why the fuck do you need my photo/dna/biometrics/tap my phone/etc.
And these same tech-bro mootherfuckers that are telling us this is all fine, and wont be used for authoritarianisml are meanwhile backing governments around the world hell
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So you get to spend money on a lawyer and a couple months time waiting for a judge to decide on your case.
Meanwhile, the police have already sent your data to the third party on the very first day of your attempt to opt-out and the third party has no incentive to delete your data.
So much for opting out.
Re: I do not consent (Score:2)
Do you have a smart phone? Do you use a car? Do you travel in public? Do you use social media? Apps? Smart home widgets? If you do, then youâ(TM)ve handed and continue to have an ocean of your data over the brokers who can and do sell it to law enforcement. You have no privacy. You have no hope of privacy. Privacy does not exist. All this tech is about 1 thing: collecting your data so that companies can market crap to you so you consume more. Thats all.
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Do you realize that none of that is anything like an indexed database of mugshots? Sure there's an ocean of semi-connected data about you out there, usually held in various companies that don't want to share it without compensation. It's not like the cops (yet) have a tap into everyone's database.
And I really want this "privacy doesn't exist, so don't bother" bullshit to die. Sure if you're in public, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, but that is not what this is about!
Please pick a different h
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> Privacy does not exist
Privacy is not a boolean
Tell it to the judge (Score:3)
I do not consent
Tell it to the judge. Mugshots are general a public record unless you can convince a judge to seal them.
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Something being public record and giving your likeness rights to a 3rd party company are two different things.
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Not only are they a public record, many police departments go out of their way to publicize and distribute the photos on an ongoing basis. The AI companies have already been scraping Milwaukee PD's website for mug shots. What they're asking for now is a formality, to provide the appearance that they got the data legitimately. The cops call this technique "parallel construction" when they employ it in an investigation.
But it's beside the point too, they already have your mugshot from social media, DMV, DHS,
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The AI companies have already been scraping Milwaukee PD's website for mug shots.
That's impressive considering that Milwaukee doesn't seem to have a website for mugshots (unlike Florida and some other locations).
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Who cares if you consent? You are a farm animal. Nobody cares about what the cows want.
2.5 million mugshots? (Score:2)
How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Surely to have your mugshot taken, you have to at least have been arrested.
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How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Who knows how many years they have been collecting those mugshots though.
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Unfortunately, it probably is legal if, as in many if not all states, mugshots are considered "public record."
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How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Two. Maybe three. Let's go with: some number less than 2.5 million. (Especially if there are multiple pictures per criminal and especially when you consider recidivists.) But let's go with it-doesn't-matter...
Surely to have your mugshot taken, you have to at least have been arrested.
Correct. Which is not a crime.
They're offering to exchange pictures of people who may or may not have committed a crime in exchange for access to software which may or may not tell them who has committed a crime. On both sides of the equation there's an imperfect dataset, which algebra tells us
Re:2.5 million mugshots? (Score:4, Funny)
How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Including or excluding the crime of drinking the local beer? :-)\
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How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Including or excluding the crime of drinking the local beer? :-)\
Shirley it cant be much worse than the gnats urine that is called "beer" in the rest of the US?
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I'm not in Wisconsin, but my first mugshot was taken when I was 11 years old. My FBI file was opened about the same time.
Mugshots/fingerprints for employees/volunteers too (Score:4, Informative)
Surely to have your mugshot taken, you have to at least have been arrested.
No. Some law enforcement background checks can involve mug shots and fingerprinting. However there is a separate system, and repository or tagging. For example fingerprint cards labeled "Employee Background Check" or something like that to differentiate from the arrest fingerprint cards. Similarly photos of employees wouldn't be public like those of the arrested.
Note "employee" is used in a general sense. Volunteer with local law enforcement, for example Search and Rescue, and it's all the same "employee" paperwork for the most part. Your ID card will probably use a different color scheme in order to differentiate from sworn officers.
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The dumbest thing I've ever read. Congratulations!
I've read dumber in this thread alone. You should expand your dataset.
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How many criminals do they have in Milwaukee, anyway?
Surely to have your mugshot taken, you have to at least have been arrested.
We know there is at least one felon in the white house. Is the white house near milwaukee?
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but especially when the cop is having a bad day because his wife wouldn't put out
Or did... but for his partner.
Every year a crime goes down (Score:1, Insightful)
That means every year we put more cops on the street.
So every single year there's more cops and less crime. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to see a problem there.
It's a cop's job to arrest people. But what do they supposed to do if there aren't enough people to arrest for real crimes?
They start hassling regular citizens. You get pulled over for a DUI and the cop lies and says you didn't pass one of the te
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So they like to hide the police budget (Score:2, Insightful)
And if we spent more money on schools and housing and feeding hungry kids we wouldn't be spending much of anything on poli
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I've had my car broken into two or three times (Score:2)
I can't think of a single time in my life the police have been legitimately useful. I can't think of many many times when the billions and billions and billions of dollars
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Where I live, cities are not allowed to reduce the police budget for any reason. The state has made that illegal. An initiative championed by the party of freedom, small government, and local governance.
Government small enough to drown in a bathtub (Score:2)
But what the phrase really means is small almost feudal governments that billionaires can control.
Large Central governments get too big for the oligarchs to just buy off and control. They nee
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One of my friends lives in a town where the police were all happy to ask for a military vehicle, until he brought up exactly how much the maintenance was for that vehicle and asked the village if they were going to cut police salaries. Considering they have almost nonexistent
Re: Every year a crime goes down (Score:1)
Or, if you observe that violent crime is going down and cop numbers are going up, it could alternately be that the increase in policing is causing the decrease in crime.
I find the left's insatiable desire to increase the reach, power, and authority of the state curiously disappears when it comes to, you know, actually stopping crime.
Just pay for the tools with $ not privacy (Score:2)
If you must use facial recognition, use a private database that doesn't allow anyone outside of your department access to the mugshots or related data. This means paying for it with dollars, not with other people's information.
Innocent before proven guilty? (Score:5, Informative)
What about everyone that had mugshots taken but had the charges dropped or were never convicted? I doubt any of them consent.
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What about everyone that had mugshots taken but had the charges dropped or were never convicted? I doubt any of them consent.
Their option is to ask a judge to seal the records.
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What about everyone that had mugshots taken but had the charges dropped or were never convicted? I doubt any of them consent.
Their option is to ask a judge to seal the records.
The actual option is you have none.
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Why do you think it matters? You will do what you are told or you will find yourself without food or shelter with no way for society to cooperate with you. You will be hounded by police and random strangers endlessly. Shut the fuck up and do what you are told. Freedom is only for the owners.
Translation (Score:3)
"While we would like to acquire the technology to assist in solving cases, being transparent with the community that we serve far outweighs the urgency to acquire".
"We're going to acquire the technology at some point, and we'll continue to let the public know what we're doing. But to be clear, we ARE going to acquire facial recognition capability - public sentiment be damned".
As an aside, I wonder how many of those mugshots are of people innocent of any crime at all. Not that it matters: it's 'do the crime, do the time', not 'do the crime, do the time and also have your face in a mugshot database, completely beyond your control, for the rest of your natural life and beyond'.
The psychopathic robber barons sure are turning the planet and our societies into steaming piles of dystopian shit at an alarming rate these days.
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The idea behind mugshots being public data is very transparent. And taxpayer funded data should be free. But public shouldn't mean open access. Just the slightest bit of human interaction required per record viewed would eliminate the privacy concerns while not getting rid of public data access. Privacy laws are not in line with the technology of even 30 years ago.
would ensure no one is arrested solely based on... (Score:2)
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Holy cow, is 4Chan still down?
shlemiel, schlemazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated (Score:2)
Laverne & Shirley would not approve!