Facial recognition programs lead to arrest
31, of Apopka, report said.
In addition, a Seminole crime analyst matched a tattoo on the woman’s ankle in the bulletin asking for the public’s help in identifying suspects with a photo of the tattoo posted on Reynolds’ Facebook account, the report said.
The theft occurred Nov. 20 theft at Hilltop Ace Hardware, 859 W. State Road 50.
Reynolds was identified with help from a Tampa Police Department crime analyst who serves on the Tampa Bay Area Intelligence the
Unit.
The unit received the bulletin about the Clermont theft and the analyst, as part of a 30-day trial, “was testing out an internet based search application called Clearview, which searches open source images,” according to a Tampa police spokesman.
Clearview isn’t part of Tampa department’s program, and the spokesman wrote in an email, “We have not purchased the application and have no plans to do so.”
In
July,
Orlando announced it would discontinue testing of Amazon’s high-tech facial recognition software called Rekognition. After testing for more than a year, the city called a halt due to a lack of resources.
Use of the face-matching software drew criticism from the ACLU and other civil rights groups over fears it could be used to track immigrants or protesters.
In the Clermont case, probable cause existed for Reynolds’ arrest, the report said, “based on two analysts using different facial recognition software and coming up with the same subject as well as the tattoo being a match.”
A customer at the store saw a couple loading charcoal and propane grills and a shop vac into the bed of a black Nissan Frontier truck and took down the license tag, but it was registered to a different vehicle, according to the report. The value of the items was $1,233.99.
Reynolds was charged with grand theft. She was released from the Lake County Jail after posting $2,000 bond.
No information was available on the man seen on security footage helping to load items into the truck.