MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Police Department has put a moratorium on the use of “any and all” facial recognition technology in the department.
It comes after a contentious Fire and Police Commission meeting held Thursday night and ongoing community backlash to MPD’s push to develop its own FRT software.
“We understand the public concern, particularly in light of national circumstances. Despite our belief that this is useful technology to assist in generating leads for apprehending violent criminals, we recognize that the public trust is far more valuable,” said an MPD spokesperson in a statement.
MPD said Chief Jeffrey Norman will send a department directive to ban the use of FRT for all members.
The ban will be in place while the department works with the FPC, the Common Council and the mayor to create a formal policy for using facial recognition technology. Norman admitted on Thursday that the department had been using the technology via partnering agencies despite not having a written standard operating procedure for its use.
In response to the moratorium, the Milwaukee Police Association released a statement on its Facebook page, saying it was “disappointed” by the decision. MPA said while it supports policy development and community input, it didn’t approve of MPD’s decision.
“…removing critical tools altogether – rather than implementing responsible oversight and safeguards – unnecessarily limits law enforcement’s ability to keep the community safe,” it said.
Facial recognition technology is powered by artificial intelligence. It analyzes facial features from digital images, videos and real-time security footage. It maps, measures and compares those features against a database to identify people.
At the meeting on Thursday, Norman said facial recognition technology has already helped the department generate leads in homicide cases and other serious crimes. In its statement, MPA emphasized this, saying the technology can “help identify violent offenders, support victims, and improve case clearance rates.”
