Tampa drops face-recognition system

August 23, 2003 6:02 AM

Tampa drops face-recognition system The Tampa Police Department says the system, which scans faces in a crowd and compares them with a database of criminals, didn't help them catch even one criminal. Could it be that law enforcement is starting to understand that technology is no substitution for good old fashioned police work?
posted by whirlwind29 (8 comments total)

Sadly, according to this link, they will be keeping the cameras. Just dumping the software.
posted by whirlwind29 at 6:17 AM on August 23, 2003

I hope not. The technology will improve and in a decade or two every police force in the world will be using it.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:47 AM on August 23, 2003

I hope not. The technology will improve and in a decade or two every police force in the world will be using it.

Would that be a reason to continue with a failing product? That in a couple of decades, it should hold water?

If so, then everyone should be using hydrogen or electric cars! Think of it! A world gone mad.
posted by Busithoth at 7:36 AM on August 23, 2003

...technology is no substitution for good old fashioned police work...

Good old fashioned police work includes the usage of technology. No, technology is not a substitute -- it is a tool. Sometimes, like in this case, the tool does not live up to its promise. Other times, with things like fingerprint analysis and a host of other now-common forensic tools, the tool turns out to be very useful indeed. I don't fault a police department from trying a potentially useful new tool, and I applaud them for being objective enough to abandon that tool when it doesn't pan out.
posted by Lokheed at 8:01 AM on August 23, 2003

Pretty_Generic nailed the short of it, I'd say.
posted by troutfishing at 8:13 AM on August 23, 2003

i live near Ybor and have gone there to go out many nights... the system was horrible, I remember one time right after the whole thing started, they nabbed someone with it but it turned out to be a false match... and as far as I know media-wise, that was the only victim of the damn thing.

I see why they're keeping the cameras up... that strip in Ybor is home to many open-air drug deals, moronic frat boy street fights and sexual assault cases. They don't want to lose that upper hand, no doubt.
posted by shadow45 at 8:38 AM on August 23, 2003

those tampans all look alike to me.
posted by quonsar at 6:03 PM on August 23, 2003

fat, white, and with a stupid WWF t-shirt?

yup, that's them
posted by shadow45 at 3:57 PM on August 27, 2003