AURORA | City lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a plan to allow Aurora police to use Artificial Intelligence in facial recognition to help track down criminal suspects.
“We took our time to make sure that we developed a program that is both responsible, accountable and provides transparency,” Police Commander Chris Poppe said.
Poppe said the police department has been developing its AI program for several years to ensure it meets the requirements of state Senate Bill 22-113 and aligns with best practices for accountability and transparency.
The department would use facial recognition as an “additional biometric method” to help identify suspects in criminal investigations, which will help to generate investigative leads, not probable cause for arrest, Poppe said.
“What will be put out by this is only a tip or a lead,” Poppe said. It’s not probable cause. It doesn’t lead us to arrest anyone. It requires considerable additional investigation to validate if there is any credibility to that lead, just like we do with almost anything else we receive.”
The department plans to use the technology through existing investigative tools such as Lumen and the private vendor ClearView AI, both of which allow officers to compare images with publicly available databases, social media and open-source material.
Limits on what the technology may not be used for include violating constitutional rights under the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendments, harassing or intimidating any person or group, civil immigration enforcement, and ongoing surveillance or tracking without a court order.
Poppe said they also intend to have training, not just for users of the systems but also for every detective who might receive facial recognition leads.
“We’re not only implementing peer review, but we’re even implementing additional layers to ensure that we don’t have any errors with our leads,” Poppe said. “We’re taking it above and beyond best practice.”
Councilmember Allison Coombs asked about the city’s decision to work with Clearview AI, citing multi-million-dollar lawsuits against the company for collecting and selling billions of images without authorization.
“How can we trust that, considering that they’ve utilized images and collected images in an unauthorized manner in the past and been found guilty of that in courts?” Coombs said.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said that Clearview AI has since amended its data collection and storage practices.
“Clearview has followed every court order they have received,” Schulte said. “They have changed their practices. They are in compliance with the law as it’s come down.”
Coombs said that in the most recent lawsuit involving Clearview AI, a federal judge in Illinois awarded a $51.75 million nationwide class settlement. This stemmed from Clearview’s collection of images, which violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and other state laws.
Clearview AI also settled a separate case in Illinois in 2022, in which the American Civil Liberties Union alleged a violation of privacy rights because the company allowed private businesses and individuals to access its database. Clearview agreed to stop selling access to its database to private businesses or individuals, but the agreement allowed Clearview to continue working with federal agencies and local law enforcement outside Illinois, according to the Associated Press reporting
“It’s deeply concerning that we would be looking at contracting with a vendor that has demonstrated that they will violate the law and wait to be sued to then comply,” she said
City council approved the proposal 5–2, with council members Coombs and Ruben Medina voting no. Three council members were absent.
“Crimes occur every day, and our officers do a great job of collecting evidence and identifying witnesses,” Poppe said.
This technology will enhance productivity, increase crime solvability, and ultimately increase safety for the community and for our officers, Poppe said.
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