Washington police forces use facial recognition via the FITlist
Information Certainty: Documented
Deployment Purpose: Criminal investigations
| Summary |
|---|
| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
| Product Deployed | Unknown Products 0051 |
|---|---|
| Institutions ⠉ | Unknown Products 0051 |
| Datasets | Unknown Dataset 0092 |
| Search software |
Status and Events:
| Status | Stopped |
|---|---|
| Events | Start (2 January 2016, Documented, , No description) |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
| Involved Entities | |
|---|---|
| Managed by | Pierce County Sheriff's Department |
| Used by | Seattle Police Department Fircrest Police Department Richland Police Department WA Marysville Police Department WA |
Location:
| City | Fircrest WA Marysville WA Tacoma (WA) Richland (WA) |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | USA USA USA USA |
Description[ ]
Facial recognition tools are widely used by police departments both small and large in Washington, with Pierce County Sheriff acting as a central hub for cross-departmental requests which were found to have been made on an email list. In 2021, Washington banned the use of FRT.
Now, thanks to thousands of pages of previously undisclosed emails, OneZero can confirm the existence of a massive, secretive network of police departments working together to share these controversial facial recognition tools. The emails, which date back to at least 2016, also indicate that these departments explicitly tried to keep this cross-department partnership secret from the public. These emails were shared with OneZero from a source who obtained the documents through an open records request. Many of these cross-department requests in Washington state were made through a previously undisclosed email listserv known as FITlist. FITlist — with FIT standing for “Fraud and Identity Theft” — includes officers from at least a dozen police departments, from large organizations like the Seattle police and Pierce County Sheriff’s Department to smaller ones like the Richland and Marysville police. Officers on the listserv are encouraged to adopt a Fight Club-style directive that precludes group members from discussing the existence of the list publicly. One document explicitly says: “Do not mention FITlist in your reports or search warrant affidavits.” 1
References
- a b "Washington Police Are Taking a Cue from ‘Fight Club’ for a Secret Facial Recognition Group". (2019) <https://onezero.medium.com/secret-emails-reveal-how-washington-state-cops-shared-facial-recognition-tech-db8a799c6de6> Accessed: 2022-07-10