An Indiana Police Department Has Been Using Clearview AI For A Year, Much To The Surprise Of Its Oversight

Out of all the purveyors of facial recognition tech, Clearview is by far the sketchiest. It has compiled billions of photos and other personal info by doing little more than scraping the internet of anything that isn't locked down. Web scraping isn't inherently evil, but Clearview certainly makes scraping appear malicious.

There are any number of reasons government agencies shouldn't do business with Clearview. For one, even its competitors think it has crossed lines the sketchiest of them wouldn't cross. For another, Clearview has frequently misrepresented its contribution to arrests and criminal investigations - misrepresentations it uses to sell its products to other cop shops.

Clearview is tainted. And that taint covers those who choose to utilize its tech. That likely explains why the Evansville (Indiana) police department decided it would rather not discuss its purchase and use of the tech to its supposed oversight, city and county government officials.

Police in Evansville have enjoyed near-total freedom to deploy cutting-edge facial recognition technology with almost no oversight from judges, prosecutors or officials - a situation that has led some legal experts to raise concerns about local use of the technology.

For more than a year, key city and county leaders - and the public - remained largely in the dark about the Evansville Police Department's use of Clearview AI software, which is regardedas possibly the most powerful facial recognition technology suitein the world.

It's not just council members being cut out of the loop. It's judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys.

Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers told the Courier & Press she was not aware of Clearview AI, or facial recognition technology, ever coming up in local courtrooms, despite the apparent routine use of such technology by Evansville police.

Neither was Vanderburgh County's Chief Public Defender, Steve Owens. Police also did not brief Evansville's city council about its decision to acquire and use the technology, either, according to three current council members.

As the Courier-Press reports, judges have also been kept in the dark. Clearview has never been referenced in court documents, including search warrant affidavits. Instead, detectives and officers hide Clearview use under the vague term investigatory tool."

That's incredibly problematic. Criminal defendants have the right to challenge the evidence used against them. When law enforcement refuses to be explicit about the tech and tools used to track down suspects, defendants enter the courtroom blind and with one hand tied behind their backs.

It's problematic enough that even the county prosecutor believes the PD should be more forthcoming about its use of Clearview.

Meanwhile, those supposedly holding the PD's purse strings don't even know how these funds are being spent.

I have not been briefed," City Councilman Alex Burton, D-Fourth Ward, wrote in response to questions about his knowledge of the EPD's use of Clearview AI. I have full confidence in Bolin (and) the Merit Commission."

I honestly don't know much about any of this, but would be happy to inquire," City Councilman Ben Trockman, D-First Ward, wrote in an email.

[...]

City Councilman Zachary Heronemus, D-Third Ward, told the Courier & Press he was not briefed by EPD officials about their decision to begin deploying facial recognition technology from the outset, nor was he aware of the EPD discussing the issue with the city council in general.

The public records that exposed the PD's two-year contract with Clearview also showed the PD has no policies in place to govern the use of this tech.

So, what's being done with the assistance of this powerful tool and its massive database of scraped photos?

We're solving a ton of shoplifting reports from using this technology set," [Police Chief Billy] Bolin said.

Patrol officers can also use Clearview AI to verify a person's identity in real time using the software's mobile application.

They can take a picture with their phone of the person while they're standing there, enter it into this, and basically what it's doing is it's pulling pictures from any open source," Bolin explained. Anything that's open in the public domain is where it's matching up photos."

Ah. Busting petty thieves and allowing cops to run suspicionless searches on anyone they happen to encounter in public. Fantastic.

Despite these statements - and these legislators acknowledging the PD hasn't been forthcoming about its surveillance tech purchases - some council members seem to think there's nothing to be concerned about.

Heronmeus said he felt comfortable that Evansville police were using Clearview AI responsibly, as did Burton, who represents Evansville's Fourth Ward.

Really? What's responsible" about keeping judges, defendants, their lawyers, and county prosecutors in the dark about the PD's Clearview use? What's responsible" about refusing to establish policies governing its use by officers? What's responsible" about taking a picture" of any person while they're standing there" and running a facial recognition search? What is responsible" about bypassing every level of oversight to get the tech toys you want without having to deal with the scrutiny these purchases are supposed to be subjected to?

Given these reactions, it seems a tacit blessing has been given to the Evansville PD to keep doing what it's doing. The council members don't seem to care, the public defender's office is just going to be ignored, and the PD thinks buying tech to bust shoplifters is just solid police work. The only one who might matter - the county prosecutor - has yet to say she'll actually do anything about this. The PD, at this point, has scored a completely unearned win - all while associating itself with the most infamous of facial recognition tech providers.