A BuzzFeed article from April 6 reported that local police departments have used a facial recognition tool to look through millions of American’s faces, and Hamden Police Department is on the list for having used or tried this technology.
HQNN spoke with Captain Ronald Smith at the Hamden Police Department to clarify, who said on April 13 that the department used the technology on a trial basis a year ago, but it was never used on any active cases.
“I was informed by our Deputy Chief that Detectives utilized it approximately 12 months ago,” Smith said. “He doesn’t believe that it was used on any active cases. We were provided with a free trial. The department decided not to purchase it.”
A confidential source provided BuzzFeed with the list of agencies and companies that have used or tried the Clearview AI technology. BuzzFeed then created a searchable database of US-based taxpayer-funded entities.
“We have included only those agencies for which the data shows that at least one associated individual ran at least one facial recognition scan as of February 2020,” the article says.
The data includes facial recognition searches conducted using Clearview AI between 2018 and February 2020, so it does not account for any activity after that time. BuzzFeed gave every agency and organization in the database the opportunity to comment on whether they used it or not, and if the technology has led to any arrests.
Out of the 1,803 entities in the database, 337 said they had employees who used or tried Clearview AI. However, 34 of those organizations said they were unaware that their employees had signed up for free trials until BuzzFeed’s questions prompted them to look.
Officials at another 69 entities at first denied their employees use of the technology but later determined that some of them had. This is the case for Hamden. Hamden Police Department’s Captain Ronald Smith first replied to the question of if Hamden had used this technology on April 12, denying Hamden’s use of Clearview AI, but followed back up with HQNN on April 13.
We were provided with a free trial. The department decided not to purchase it.
Captain Ronald Smith on Clearview AI
When searching Hamden on the BuzzFeed database, it says that Hamden Police Department’s search count on the Clearview AI facial recognition is between 11-50. The department never responded to BuzzFeed’s request for a comment.
Another BuzzFeed article on the Clearview AI investigation said more than 7,000 individuals from around 2,000 agencies nationwide have used the technology.
These individuals used the technology “to search through millions of Americans’ faces, looking for people, including Black Lives Matter protesters, Capitol insurrectionists, petty criminals, and their own friends and family members,” the article says.
Ninety-seven entities declined to say whether their employees used Clearview and 210 organizations denied any use of Clearview. Over one thousand organizations, including Hamden, did not respond to requests for a comment. BuzzFeed found that often leaders at these agencies were unaware that their employees were using the tool.
Since the technology has not been proven to be completely accurate, the use of Clearview AI at police departments could result in people being wrongly accused and convicted of crimes.
“Americans shouldn’t have to rely on BuzzFeed to learn their local law enforcement agencies were using flawed facial recognition technology,” Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, told BuzzFeed News. “This report pulls back the curtain on Clearview’s shady campaign to encourage the secret adoption of its service by local police. Inaccurate facial recognition will inevitably cause innocent people to be wrongly accused and convicted of crimes and could very well lead to tragedies.”
Additional Reporting: Garret Reich and Lo Yarnall
