In a five-hour, explosive meeting at Milwaukee’s city hall Feb. 5, the Fire and Police Commission expected to hear about the Milwaukee Police Department’s long-awaited draft policy around the use of facial recognition technology, or FRT.
What they got instead was a bombshell.
Last year, in another commission meeting, it was revealed that MPD had used FRT in investigations — a practice that members of the Fire and Police Commission, and the public, were unaware of. Last night, MPD’s Chief of Staff, Heather Hough, asked for some recognition for the department’s transparency when those findings did come out.
“I would like the acknowledgement that we recognized this was an issue and we disclosed it,” Hough said over video at Thursday's meeting.
Thirty minutes later, Commissioner Krissie Fung pressed MPD inspector Paul Lao on the department’s past use of facial recognition.
“Just to clarify,” asked Fung, “Is the practice still continuing?”
“As needed right now, we are still using [FRT],” Lao responded.
Now well past 10 p.m., commissioners and residents still in attendance were in shock. When the use of FRT was discussed last April, the goal was to have standard operating procedures (SOP), or guardrails, for its potential use.
Fung asked Lao if the department was currently still using FRT without an SOP in place.
“As we said that’s correct and we’re trying to work on getting an SOP,” Lao said.
Before MPD revealed the department was still using FRT without any SOP in place, community members packed the room, overflowing into the hallway, for public comment.
Nadiyah Johnson, owner of Milky Way Tech Hub, brought up FRT’s issues with racial bias.
“Across the country, these systems have demonstrated higher error rates for Black people, women and young people,” Johnson said.
Multiple people, including Milwaukee Turners' Emilio De Torre brought up concerns around ICE and FRT.
“It’s widely documented that ICE is using FRT by taking photos of protestors and uploading them to Mobile Fortify,” De Torre said. “You don’t need to have the technology to take advantage of the databases.”
Fire and Police Commission Vice Chair Bree Spencer suggested a moratorium of all FRT use until there’s a policy in place. Spencer said that the commission simply can’t wait for MPD to figure it out.
“I think it’s time for FPC to draft our recommendation about the use of FRT,” Spencer pleaded. “We can’t wait for the MPD SOP at this point.”
MPD said it has only used FRT in criminal investigations. But the department didn’t have tracking available for when it's been used.
A follow-up meeting will be set to hear more about MPD’s FRT use, and the commission's, and community's, continued concerns.
