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Beach may scan Oceanfront faces By AGNES BLUM, The Virginian-Pilot VIRGINIA BEACH - New software that can analyze a face may transform the sometimes imprecise art of identifying criminals - comparing mug shots to people on the street - into a science, police say. Instead of relying on officers who may harbor prejudices about hair style, skin color or clothing, the software would compare less subjective traits: the distance between the tip of the nose and the bottom lip, the circumference of one's irises, and the distance between the pupils, for example. Virginia Beach will learn next week if it will become the nation's second city - Tampa, Fla., was the first - to use facial recognition software to help officers snare criminals and find runaways, police said. The Beach has used closed-circuit TV cameras to watch the Oceanfront from the 2nd Police Precinct since 1993, largely for checking traffic and observing crowds. Under the new system, the 10 cameras would feed images of people as they strolled along the Oceanfront to monitors, where the software would sort faces against a database of mugshots, looking for a match, said Capt. Gregory G. Mullen of the Special Investigations Department. Beach police said the database includes about 2,500 outstanding felony warrants as well as pictures of runaways and missing people, he said. The software generally works by creating a ''map'' of the face and then identifying 80 distinctive points. To achieve a match, 14 of those points must align with a database picture, often a mugshot, Mullen said. By comparison, fingerprints only require 11 points to match the whorls and ridges that make up each person's unique print. Once the computer spits out a match, an officer at the 2nd precinct would radio an officer on the street for further action.' 'A match will not give officers probable cause to arrest,'' Mullen said. ''Only enough to stop and question them.'' In laboratory tests, under ideal lighting, the software had a 99.3 percent accuracy rate. It is unknown what the accuracy rate would be on the streets with varying weather and lighting conditions. ''It's no different than a policeman holding a mug shot in his hand on the corner as people go by,'' said Police Chief A.M. Jacocks. ''In fact, it's more efficient.'' It is not clear how the new technology will be accepted by the courts once someone is arrested because of computer identification. Several vacationers at the Oceanfront said that while public safety is a priority, they would be concerned about cases of mistaken identity. ''There are plenty of people that look alike,'' said Sterling Harris of Richmond, as he paused outside a shop on Atlantic Avenue on Thursday. ''I hope they don't sit behind the cameras looking for people to mess with.'' Police insisted that the opposite is true. Allowing a computer program to identify someone takes the human error out of the equation, Mullen said. But Kent Willis, director of the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union, worries about privacy implications and the Big Brother overtones. Photographing people as they lick ice cream on the Boardwalk is similar to dusting park benches and other public surfaces for fingerprints, he said. The motive may be admirable but the result is the same - government invading people's privacy and collecting information on citizens. The police said they would toss out any pictures that didn't match, but Willis called those promises slippery. Once the police started using the technology, they might decide it would be helpful to keep photos on file. ''There's a long history of government abusing information it has gathered,'' Willis said. Private industries, such as casinos and check-cashing businesses, have used facial recognition technology for years, but the software garnered nationwide attention when it was used on more than 100,000 faces at the Super Bowl last year without people's knowledge. No arrests were made. Beach police will hear next week whether they'll get a $150,000 grant, they will ask the City Council to chip in $50,000. If the money comes through, the program should be up and running by spring of 2002. ''It'll be worth it if they get the right people,'' said Michelle Porter-Loftin, as she shopped with her two children at the Oceanfront. ''Makes me wonder. I'd be worried about mistaken identity. We'll see.'' |
