Facial Recognition used by Virginia State Police
Information Certainty: Documented
Deployment Purpose: Criminal investigations, Surveillance
| Summary |
|---|
| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
| Product Deployed | NEC Face Recognition Technology DataWorks Plus (Software) |
|---|---|
| Institutions ⠉ | NEC DataWorks Plus |
| Datasets | DataWorks Plus (Dataset) NEC (Dataset) Unknown Dataset 0073 |
| Search software |
Status and Events:
| Status | Ongoing |
|---|---|
| Events | Start (3 January 2016, Documented, , No description) End (2 March 2021, Documented, , No description) Start (2 July 2022, Documented, , No description) |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
| Involved Entities | |
|---|---|
| Managed by | Virginia State Police |
| Used by | Virginia State Police |
Location:
| City | Richmond VA |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | USA |
Description[ ]
The Virginia Sate Police have been found to have certainly used facial recognition technology since 2016. In 2021, the technology was banned. However, in July 2022, the ban was overturned. State police can use and develop protocols around the technology for specific purposes. Local police in Virginia can develop policies in line with the practices of state police.
The Virginia State Police (VSP) can run face recognition searches of 1.2 million Virginia mug shots using the VSP’s Centralized
Criminal Information System (CCIS) (015274). Mug shots are “retained indefinitely,” which means VSP does not “scrub” its database to eliminate people who had charges dropped or dismissed except when records are expunged (015264, 016858). “Each criminal justice agency in Virginia” can access the system upon request (015303). Police are not required to have reasonable suspicion to run a search; use of the system is limited to “criminal justice purposes only” (015272). VSP does not conduct audits of
how the system is used (015264, 016859) 1
VSP uses a DataWorks Plus face recognition system, which employs a NEC algorithm 1
Last year, Virginia lawmakers passed one of the most restrictive bans in the country on the use of facial recognition technology, barring local police departments and campus police from purchasing or using the technology unless explicitly authorized by the legislature 2
On Thursday, just eight months after the measure took effect, lawmakers approved a bill to lift the blanket ban. The legislation would allow police agencies to use the technology in certain circumstances, including to help identify an individual when they have reasonable suspicion that the person committed a crime. Under the bill, facial recognition also could be used for a variety of other uses, including to help identify crime victims or witnesses, sex trafficking victims and unidentified bodies in morgues. The legislation explicitly bars the use of facial recognition for surveillance or monitoring 2
State police continued to use the central system even during the 'ban' period.
The ban applied to local and campus police departments, but not to Virginia State Police. State police use the Centralized Criminal Image System, which allows them to compare an unknown image of a person to a database of mug shots of people who have been arrested. The software returns images that have a similarity to the subject in question, but police investigators are required to confirm the official identification 2
References
- a b c Centre on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. The Perpetual Lineup: Virgina State Police. , 2018.
- a b c d "Virginia lawmakers OK lifting ban on facial technology use". (2022) <https://apnews.com/article/technology-virginia-crime-legislature-f3f2af850745911014b950d951c3c464> Accessed: 2022-06-29