PI Newswire

ST. PETERSBURG — Facial recognition technology was pioneered by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office almost a decade ago. The software can glean an uncooperative suspect’s name from a photo. Officers from Tampa Bay to Miami and Jacksonville to Tallahassee are using it.

The St. Petersburg Police Department is up next.

The City Council has approved spending $88,400 to give the city’s officers and detectives the same digital capabilities that many Tampa Bay law enforcement agencies already enjoy.

Using the sheriff’s software and database, St. Petersburg police will be able to match a suspect’s face against photos of more than 7.5 million offenders from across the United States.

It’s one of the nation’s largest such databases, used routinely by deputies in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando. Now Assistant Chief Dave DeKay said St. Petersburg wants to see what it can do with the system.

“We liked what we heard about it and thought we’d try it out in the field and see how it works,” DeKay said.

“We don’t know where it will lead to, but if it helps us identify people quicker, if it helps us get more names, if it helps us check surveillance photos for more investigative leads, it’s going to benefit us,” the assistant chief said.

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According to popular TV crime dramas, today’s investigators – along with old fashioned gut instincts – use all technology at their disposal when it comes to tracking down and arresting the bad guys. One such technological advantage is a centrally located national computer database containing all past criminal records of anyone who ever killed, stole, drove drunk, or even jaywalked. Best of all, these super crime databases are never, ever wrong.

However, the reality is quite different say experts in employment screening, and also recent headlines. The potential for errors in crime databases was evident in the case of a Maryland woman who lost her job after a background check performed through the FBI’s National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) indicated that she was unsuitable to work on the contract her company had won to handle mail for the Social Security Administration (SSA).

According to the Baltimore Sun, when the SSA performed a routine background check on the woman in July 2009 for low-level security clearance, the results showed she was “unsuitable” to work on the contract. The subsequent SSA letter to her employer did not specify what the background check had uncovered. The employer fired the woman rather than keep her off the contract.

The woman maintained that she had no criminal history, a claim backed by the Baltimore Sun, which only uncovered a civil case possibly involving a suit against her late father’s estate, and also by the SSA itself, which sent a letter to her employer saying as much. The SSA letter said the woman had passed a pre-screening check and could work on the SSA contract pending a final determination. Instead of reinstating her, the woman’s former company told her to re-apply for her job, then that the department was reorganizing, and later that it had no intention of restoring her old position.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the woman has since learned that an unspecified error in the FBI’s NCIC database – a repository for criminal records and information on fugitives, stolen property and missing persons fed to the database from local, state. and federal law-enforcement agencies around the country – was the cause for the SSA’s initial determination that she was “unsuitable.”

“Although the NCIC data is the closet thing that exist to a national criminal database, it is not nearly as complete as portrayed in the movies,” stated Les Rosen, Founder and President of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a nationwide pre-employment screening company. “Many records of crime do not make it into the system because of the chain of events that must happen in multiple jurisdictions in order for a crime to appear in NCIC.”

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An expert in forensic anthropology argues that the database should include computer records of citizens such as anthropological data, physiognomic characteristics, medical information, radiographic files, dental records and numbers of different identity documents. Tzipi Kahana believes that radiographic techniques, together with information from this database, are a reliable mechanism for identifying bodies after natural disasters or attacks.

Forensic Anthropology, as an independent discipline within the field of forensic science, has evolved since the early twentieth century in tandem with technological developments of the scientific world. One of its best tools has been the implementation of radiological techniques for positive identification of human remains.

A research conducted at the University of Granada warns of the need to create “immediately” a database of citizens, from all countries of the world, that include computer records of citizens such as anthropological data, physiognomic characteristics, medical information, radiographic files, dental records and numbers of different identity documents.

This work has been performed by Tzipi Kahana (former student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) at the Department of Physical Anthropology of the University of Granada, and directed by professors Miguel C. Botella López and Immaculada Alemán Aguilera. Its author argues that the creation of this database “is crucial to the proper thanatological management following natural disasters or attacks”, in order to guarantee an accurate diagnosis of the data of death and to enable the identification of victims.

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Every Russian’s fingerprints may soon be collected into a comprehensive database as the country’s investigative committee claims this will make searching for criminals and identifying them easier.

Aleksandr Bastrykin, chief deputy prosecutor of the Russian Federation, has announced that he would like to see a national fingerprint database of residents. The measure comes in addition to a new visa regulation that requires all foreigners who want to reside in the Russian Federation to provide their fingerprints when applying for a visa or work permit.

Talking about the project, Bastrykin cited the chief investigator of the terrorist attack on the “Nevsky Express,” the train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg that was blown up late last year. The investigator has claimed that the criminals would have been found much quicker had such a database already been in existence.

The Russian government said that around 70 percent of all Russian citizens are in favor of the measure. However, judging from the experience of other countries, the issue is not that easy.

In the United Kingdom, when Tony Blair proposed the introduction of identity cards, the population split into two camps – those that said they had nothing to hide, and those who were shocked by the measure arguing, they were no criminals.

Russians, too, are not quite sure they want to be subjected to such procedures.

People on the streets of Russia told RT that they do not like to be controlled and put under pressure. Moreover, even though the procedure can really make the search for criminals easier, at the same time it is clearly a breach of human rights.

Others, however, believe that the measure will be more effective than a passport because it will better be able to help control people.

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Data isn’t information until you find a use for it, which requires connecting two pieces of data that might be insignificant on their own. For example, it might be unimportant that someone has enrolled in a flight training school unless that person is listed on a terrorism watch list.

That’s the principle behind fusion centers: Put data in a form that analysts can turn into useful information that contributes to improved decision-making. Fusion centers combine data from various sources — primarily federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, but also other repositories, such as driver’s license databases — and make the information available through a single interface or, at least, in a single location.

The 2001 terrorist attacks and the intelligence gaps that allowed them to happen have played a significant role in the rapid expansion of fusion centers in recent years.

“The primary mission of fusion centers is information sharing,” Robert Riegle, director of the Homeland Security Department’s State and Local Program Office, told Congress in April 2009. “Just as Congress and the 9/11 Commission have recognized, information sharing is vital to protect the American people and our institutions. The success of the national network of fusion centers is crucial to the department and to the states in achieving greater situational awareness toward the threats we face.”

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Home Secretary Alan Johnson has given Parliament some details on the most recent breaches of the various identity databases held by his ministry.

Johnson told the House of Commons that there were 11 occasions in the last year when information was used or accessed improperly.

In response to a question from Chris Grayling, Tory shadow home secretary, Johnson said in the last year five people had been disciplined or dismissed for falsifying records or manipulating Home Office systems. Six people have been disciplined for unauthorised access to a database or letting someone else use their log-in.

He said the Identity and Passport Service does not “specify the activities involved in each case”. He said it was UK Border Agency policy not to provide any further breakdown or details in case any individual’s identity was revealed.

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