Many Police Departments Have Software That Can Identify People In Crowds
As protesters demand an end to police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the nation, police departments around the country are using software that can track and identify people in crowds from surveillance footage — often with little to no public oversight or knowledge.
Dozens of cities around the country are using BriefCam, which sells software that allows police to comb through surveillance footage to monitor protests and enforce social distancing, and almost all of these cities have hosted protests against police brutality in the weeks since George Floyd was killed in police custody, BuzzFeed News has found.
Some of the cities using BriefCam’s technology — such as New Orleans and St. Paul — have been the site of extreme police violence, with officers using rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons on protesters. Authorities in Chicago; Boston; Detroit; Denver; Doral, Florida; Hartford, Connecticut; and Santa Fe County, New Mexico have also used it.
Some cities said they were not using BriefCam in conjunction with the protests or the pandemic. The St. Paul Police Department told BuzzFeed News that it has not used BriefCam “to detect social distancing or face masks” or “for crowd detection/monitoring protests.” The department representative did not respond when asked if there is department policy that prevents it.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/police-software-briefcam?ref=bfnsplash