FBI to launch nationwide facial recognition service

Next-Generation Identification (NGI) system under development (Nextgov.com)

There's a lot going on in this article.

The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI's existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings.

Often law enforcement authorities will "have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don't know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case," said Nick Megna, a unit chief at the FBI's criminal justice information services division. The new facial recognition service can help provide that missing link by retrieving a list of mug shots ranked in order of similarity to the features of the subject in the photo.

The first half of the article covers organizational aspects of the NGI system: a build-out of the FBI fingerprint database — and the beauraucratic infrastructure allowing the FBI to support local law enforcement nationwide — to include other biometrics. In this case, facial recognition applied to mug shots.

For now, it's not clear exactly how useful such a system will be compared to the technological and organizational overhead it will require. If an officer has arrested someone they are having trouble identifying and they want to enlist the FBI's help, the FBI AFIS fingerprint system works great. The time when a picture would be most useful is when fingerprints aren't an option, meaning the person isn't under arrest.

In this case, the quality of the 'probe' image (as opposed to the database image) will be extremely important and a significant amount of officer training is involved in using such a system. But if you want to have face as well as fingerprints as an option, you have to start somewhere: collecting the data and building the institutional linkages.

The second half of the article covers privacy from a variety of perspectives:

♦ Sunita Patel - staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights: "Any database of personal identity information is bound to have mistakes. And with the most personal immutable traits like our facial features and fingerprints, the public can't afford a mistake."

I'm not sure I follow. As with every other human endeavor, Law enforcement is not a mistake-free business. Never has been; never will be. The application of a new technology or process should be judged by whether or not it improves the status quo by a greater measure than its costs. While we're on the subject of mistakes, isn't letting known violent offenders go free to victimize others also a mistake?

♦ Jim Harper - director of information policy at the libertarian Cato Institute: "It might be appropriate to have nonconvicted people out of that system."

Good point. One can see why Federal, State and Local law enforcement would want to keep mug shots in the database of people that have not been convicted of criminal acts. All sorts of organized crime comes to mind (drugs, gangs, prostitution) and biometric ID management technology can be extremely useful in learning about these criminal organizations.

It's also easy to see the point of view of someone who has been arrested for something they did not do and has been cleared of any wrongdoing. They proably don't want to be in a database of bad guys after having been wrongly accused in the first place. There are also (for now) some technical reasons why you wouldn't want to junk up the database with the photos of the truly innocent. First the search will take longer and second the quality of the result will go down. The parenthetical "for now" above is because over time Moore's Law and better algorithms will compensate.

♦ The article also links to a very frank Privacy Impact Assessment conducted by the FBI. See Section 2.3: Privacy Impact Analysis.

♦ Nick Megna, an FBI CJIS Unit Chief: "This doesn't change or create any new exchanges of data," he said. "It only provides [law enforcement] with a new service to determine what photos are of interest to them."

"This is not something where we want to collect a bunch of surveillance film" and enter it in the system. "That would be useless to us. It would be useless to our users."

This subject will continue to generate significant and, we hope, healthy debate. Discovering the most advantageous way to incorporate new technology in law enforcement and public safety depends upon it.

Earlier, far less detailed, post on the subject: FBI's Next-Gen Multi-Modal Biometric ID management System

Biometric database helps end abuse of deportation system

'Voluntary Return' of repeat border jumpers (nextgov.com)

In the past, undocumented aliens who were arrested but had no criminal history on record or were using an alias were granted "voluntary return." But now authorities have the tools to catch forged identities and quickly pull up data on an individual's previous infractions. The IDENT database captures fingerprint data for all foreign nationals entering the United States -- information that is hard to fake -- and permits government officials to cross-check them against the digital prints of known offenders.

"Voluntary Return" applied to those not legally present in the US that didn't have criminal records. Sounds great. Less bureaucratic overhead and a "no harm, no foul" solution.

Unfortunately, without any rigorous system of ID management, the Voluntary Return program created a revolving door for some real unsavory characters so long as they could avoid getting ID'ed as repeat offenders.

It looks like the FBI's new IDENT system is closing this loophole and providing a better picture of the patterns of extra-legal migration.

FBI Next-Generation Identification initiative and Interoperability

Upgraded FBI biometric database to identify dangerous undocumented immigrants (nextgov.com)

A July 6 FBI internal fact sheet [.pdf] that an immigrants rights coalition obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, says, "IDENT/IAFIS interoperability under Secure Communities is part of a larger FBI/[Criminal Justice Information Services] Next-Generation Identification initiative," adding that "[Secure Communities] is the first opportunity for [law enforcement agencies] to fully and accurately identify suspects in their custody and gives them a head start on NGI."

Interoperability happens (or doesn't happen) at both the technical and the organizational level. The project described in the article requires high degree of interoperability from a whole lot of technical and organizational units.

The .pdf linked within the quote contains an internal FBI presentation to assist agents in fostering organizational interoperability between the FBI and local law enforcement organizations.

The technology is improving and the country's premiere law enforcement agency is adapting and applying the tech to the challenges it is charged with meeting.

The people side is the hard part.