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Tampa Police Give Up On Face Recognition Cameras

Posted by michael on from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.

Saint Aardvark writes "The city of Tampa has given up on their face-recognition system attached to street surveillance cameras."

17 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Does this mean by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 5, Funny

    that they have lost face?

  2. Yes but... by CGP314 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But after two years, it yielded no positive identifications

    I'm sorry, I didn't catch that... how many false positives did you say the system had?

  3. A UK Solution... by The+Brain+Murderer · · Score: 5, Funny
    Here, whenever a criminal appears on the TV, their face is always partially obscured whereas everyone else looks normal.

    Why not site these cameras at ports and airports as any dodgy people would appear with their faces obscured so you could just arrest them...

    1. Re:A UK Solution... by untaken_name · · Score: 3, Funny

      It will be more worrying when they fit the guns straight to the cameras in order to weed out the inefficient human in the loop.

      Yes, but there exists a highly valuable training video which presents the risks of doing exactly this: Robocop. That's what they did with ED-209, but it turns out that your highly-armored killing machine of a cop must have a human core, or it'll just wax a bunch of highly-paid corporate stooges..er, wait. Now I can't remember why ED-209 wasn't a success.

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      http://xkcd.com/386/
  4. I want cameras in New Orleans by beacher · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cameras on every corner. Web based cameras. Pan and zooming cameras... With some recognition software.. We could build something that dispenses beads when it recognizes ... umm...

  5. Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is awesome ... finally I can visit Tampa again!

  6. Re:Not surprising by DemoLiter1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can recognise a particular face from a 2D photograph
    You want that job? Positions are free, but you must be able to climb walls and pillars...

  7. Re:Another Story on the Subject in The Reg. by markom · · Score: 5, Funny
    Spend an afternoon in London if you don't believe me that Scots have `substance dependance` issues.
    Uhm, I hate to bring it to you, but London is not in Scotland...
  8. Probably by cspenn · · Score: 1, Funny

    ... because every time the governor and the voting inspection officials walked by, they would be flagged as criminals for fraud and racketeering...

    --
    Subscribe for free to my show!
  9. Re:Doesn't work by znaps · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, they had one guy with a Groucho Marx mask, one with a Ronald McDonald mask...

  10. Re:Doesn't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Don't forget the other point you need to make. The govt dept spending the money NEEDS to spend the money on something. Whether it works or not is beside the point.

    Why you ask do they NEED to spend the money. Simple, if they don't spend their entire budget (on stupid crap or not) they will get cut the next budget cycle. However, if they run out of money early then their rewarded the next budget cycle with a larger budget.

    Wouldn't it be nice if our jobs work that way. "Yes, I spent my entire months budget in two days. That means next month I'll get 15 times as much to spend!"

  11. Not one positive? Cheezus... by jabbadabbadoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    They should have put CowboyNeal in front of a camera. At least they would have one positive ID... ("hey, that's the f***er who stole all those pizza's and portables last week")

  12. Re:Shocking.... by paganizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Paint ball guns seem to work pretty well, also.

    --
    Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  13. Re:Not surprising by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 2, Funny
    You have two eyes set 1-3/4 inches or so apart

    Hey, I'm not George W Bush, you know!

    --
    When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
  14. In other news.... by Mr+Beano · · Score: 3, Funny

    After 10 beers, I too have given up my "facial recognition" system.
    So many false positives, so many regrets, so much itching and burning....

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    this sig left intentionally blank
  15. Rigged Demos... by skia · · Score: 2, Funny

    Police are at a loss to explain why the software wasn't effective, since it seemed to work fine in controlled testing, Guidara said.

    "Though," Guidara elaborated, "We did think it odd that all of the test subjects had barcodes tattooed across their foreheads."

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  16. We already knew it didn't work... by jeremycec · · Score: 2, Funny

    When they tested out the system at Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, and it didn't pick up Ray Lewis.