View source for Amazon Rekognition used by Orlando Police Department

{{Deployments
|Information Certainty=Documented
|CiteRef=stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019, heilweilBigTechCompanies2020
|Deployment Status=Stopped
|Deployment Type=Surveillance
|Has event={{HasEvent|Start|2018-01-02|Speculative|stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019}}{{HasEvent|end|2018-07-19|Documented|stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019}}
|City=Orlando (FL)
|Country=USA
|managed by=Orlando Police Department
|used by=Orlando Police Department
|Involved Entities=Orlando City Council
|Datasets Used=Amazon Rekognition (Dataset)
|Software Deployed=Amazon Rekognition (Software)
}}
Orlando Police Department ran two trials of Amazon Rekognition which they have reportedly stopped due to its flaws. The trial allowed live facial recognition on a network of cameras around the city. Amazon has also publicly declared it will not sell such software to police again. However, it is unclear what will happen with already retained devices and software. Amazon was also discovered to have made exceptions to its moratorium. 

<blockquote> Amazon’s controversial Rekognition platform, its artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition software, is no longer being used by Orlando law enforcement, ending the second attempt to use the technology in a pilot phase in central Florida. The reason: the city didn’t have the necessary equipment or bandwidth to get it properly running and never once was able to test it live [[CiteRef::stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019]] </blockquote>

<blockquote> As a result of the pressure, it appeared that Orlando let its contract with Amazon expire in late June of last year, The New York Times reported. But the pilot program began again, Orlando Weekly reports, in October of last year, when police tried to get the system running on four cameras stationed around the police department’s downtown headquarters and one camera located outside a community recreation center [[CiteRef::stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019]] </blockquote>

<blockquote> Now, roughly 10 months later, the program is again getting the axe. According to local police, it costs too much money and was far too cumbersome to install, with Amazon employees failing to help the city get even one reliable live stream up and running that could run the software in real time. The company reportedly offered to provide its own cameras, but the city refused to rely on Amazon hardware. “At this time, the city was not able to dedicate the resources to the pilot to enable us to make any noticeable progress toward completing the needed configuration and testing,” the city’s Chief Administrative Office wrote in a memo to the City Council. Orlando’s police department has “no immediate plans regarding future pilots to explore this type of facial recognition technology.” The city’s chief information officer, Rosa Akhtarkhavari, told Orlando Weekly of the second trial phase, “We haven’t even established a stream today. We’re talking about more than a year later.” Akhtarkhavari said the system was never tested on a live image even once [[CiteRef::stattOrlandoPoliceDitch2019]] </blockquote>

<blockquote> Notably, Amazon carved out exceptions to the moratorium. The company said it will continue to allow organizations that fight human trafficking and find missing children to use the technology. Amazon declined to comment further on the reasoning behind the moratorium, any plans to end its police partnerships with Ring, or non-police law enforcement access to its technology. Today, the exact details of how Rekognition is being used by law enforcement remain unclear. AWS chief executive Andy Jassy told the press earlier this year that the company doesn’t know the number of departments that have used Rekognition or how they’re using it [[CiteRef::heilweilBigTechCompanies2020]] </blockquote>
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