Regina police chief says force is not using controversial facial recognition software
Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said he's heard the claims that Regina Police Service (RPS) email addresses were provided to the company behind a controversial facial recognition technology, but that his force is not using the technology.
"We're a big police service with 600 men and women that work here and constantly our officers are always looking for new tools and new pieces of technology and innovative ways that we can do investigations," Bray said.
Details about RPS officers providing their email addresses to Clearview AI were mentioned in a Toronto Star investigative story about the U.S company, which can match people's pictures with a giant database of images they've found on the internet.
There are concerns that this kind of data collection might breach Canadian privacy law.
On Thursday, the RCMP admitted to using the software, claiming it helps crack down on online child sexual abuse. It's now under investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Regina police aren't currently using any sort of facial recognition software, according to Bray, but he said officers using facial recognition software in the future isn't out of the realm of possibility.
He said he understands there are concerns about personal privacy.
"The Regina Police Service would never do something to be offside with that," he said. "At this point we're not using the technology as a service. But is that something that down the road it might be looked at once it goes through some rigorous privacy testing? Absolutely it's possible."
Before members can use a product it has to be endorsed by the police service, Bray said. He said he hadn't even heard of Clearview prior to this week.
