Slashdot Mirror
Florida Surveillance Cameras Claim a Victim
kris_lang writes: "The St. Petersburg Times has an article that describes how an innocent man was tracked down because he was used as a "demo" face for Visionics Face-It face recognition software with their on-the-street video surveillance system in Tampa's Ybor City district. The "demo" image was printed in the St. Pete Times, and then sold to U.S. News and World Report which used it in an article. A USN&WR reader in Oklahama misidentified the face as being that of her ex-husband wanted on felony child neglect charges. The Tampa Police tracked him down to his job site and interrogated him. Now here's a question: how did they identify him in the first place to be able to track him down? Well, Florida has also been using digital photos for their newer driver's licenses. So they already have a handy-dandy database to work with."
What the damn hell are you talking about? You jumped over the part where the police question you , determine you're not the man they're looking for, and let you go. You know, like what happened to the guy in the story that was submitted. In your little fantasy world, police officers pick people out of the crowd (at gunpoint) and immediately whisk them away to court to be tried for their crimes.
No District Attorney in America will proceed with a prosecution if the only proof they have of your guilt is that you bear a facial resemblance to the suspect in the crime.
Once again, Slash-holes are making mountains out of molehills. NO ONE is claiming that these cameras identify criminals with 100% unquestionable accuracy. All they do is make it easier for authorities to identify where criminals MIGHT be.
If there's a serial killer on the loose who looks just like me, I WANT the police to question me so I can prove I'm not him. And although it might be inconvenient, I don't mind if it happens more than once.
-Poot
I don't really see what the big deal is. The tracked him down, and asked him some questions. Identity theft is real people... if he was the deadbeat dad or whatever hiding under a new identy, this would be a good thing. The guy wasn't arrested. The guy wasn't charged. He wasn't even hauled down to the station. Cry me a frickin' river.
This is a parody, so laugh. Please.
This morning, at 6am, hacker extra ordinaire, Steve Gibson was hold up for questioning in his Florida summer house by the FBI (again), but this time for, apparently, molesting little female dogs.
"Those sick perverts!," said Mr. Gibson, "They wanted me to wank into a jar to analyse it, or so they say... What really happened is that Micro$oft implanted some of those raw sockets in my arse! I dont have proves yet, but soon they will come!"
Later that day, the FBI said "Apparently our face recognition software in Florida mistook Steve Gibson with a young, blonde, big breasted female fugitive named Patricia Diddy, wanted for the crime of molesting and abusing small female animals, mostly dogs. Ooopsie."
The director of this operation had this to say to our reporters "Well, our boys noticed that something just wasnt right when our agents tried to rape, err, strip search Mr. Gibson and found 'unusual' female sexual organs in places that... simply werent there."
Some other FBI agent, that desires to remain anonymous, added "Who cares, I GOT TO STRIP SEARCH HIS ARSE!@#% L33T!@#%"
Oh well.. Who cares.. Were all doomed anyways.. And I dont live in America! woo hoo! Im free and youre not!!! ahah!
How is this different from walking down the street, and having a police officer misidentify you as some who is wanted? Mistakes happen. But what's the alternative? The police never pick anybody up unless they are observed in the process of committing a crime? [And then the ACLU lawyer says that the police should get permission from a judge in order to stop the crime].
Milliron, who says he plans to retain an attorney, hopes the software system will be removed. "I don't think it's right," he said. "They made me feel like a criminal."
Yet another greedy SOB hoping to win the legal lottery. Waaaah! They made me feel bad. Barf me.
Count me as one of those people who would love to see a camera on every public street corner. Key word: "public". You have no expectation of privacy in public. Deal with it. The only people who don't want this are 1) criminals, and 2) people who cheat on their spouses and don't want to get caught. Well, my public safety is more important than your ability to get to your motel room unobserved.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.