BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – The Benton County Sheriff’s Office is testing the use of facial recognition software to identify criminals and suspects.
The software, called Clearview Technology, compares the image of a suspect’s face to over 40 billion publicly available images.
BCSO notes that use of the software requires a law enforcement reason and a case number. Each match found in the system must then go through a thorough review before suspects can be fully identified.
However, due to how new and powerful the program is, privacy concerns are on the table.
“It’s something that needs strong rules and limits on how it’s used given how powerful it is,” said Center of Democracy and Technology Deputy Director of Security and Surveillance Project Jake Laperruque. “I think it needs to be narrowed down to that type of use but even then it still needs to have other rules and safeguards in place to make sure that it’s not misused.”
BCSO plans to tackle privacy concerns at three community consultation meetings that anyone can attend. The first is at Paterson Elementary School in Paterson at 4 p.m. on Dec. 20 and the other two will be on a later date in Kennewick and Prosser at 7 p.m.
An accountability report will be made by BCSO after the meetings. The public will have 90 days to comment on the report.
After the 90 days, commissioners will vote on whether to approve or deny BCSO’s purchase, which is planned for May 1 if approved.
If the commissioners approve the purchase of Clearview Technology for BCSO, it will be the first Washington agency with the technology.