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."

Comments

Big Deal?

[Hallow]

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.

So what?

[Reality Master 101]

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.