Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell will be holding a town hall meeting this month to explain how technology is being used for public safety purposes.
Cobb Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer and other department officials will be presenting information at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 6-8 p.m.
The meeting comes after commissioners approved an extension of a contract with a facial recognition technology company to assist law enforcement in identifying suspects in criminal investigations.
Despite some citizen protests, VanHoozer said that the AI platform being used isn’t used for broad surveillance.
“What this product does for the most part is take a photograph of a known offender and compare that to a database that has images that are legally obtained and publicly available so that we can identify that individual,” VanHoozer told commissioners last month, before they voted to continue the contract.
He has said the policies surrounding the use of the facial recognition technology are being crafted carefully and with strict provisions so that citizen concerns “are strongly mitigated.”
Critics said the vendor, Clearview AI, has been hacked and sued multiple times over privacy concerns and has been fined in some European countries.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the Clearview AI contract, and the Cobb Police Department’s policy is being finalized.
For information about the town hall, contact Kimberly Jorgensen at Kimberly.Jorgensen@cobbcounty.org or call 770-528-3317.
Related:
- Man charged with kidnapping at Delk-Powers Ferry grocery store
- Cobb approves facial recognition contract for police
- Suspect in murders of Cobb sheriff’s deputies gets life sentence
- Two women identified as suspects in Canton Road car fire
- Smyrna murder suspect arrested in Delk-Powers Ferry area
- East Cobb woman indicted for her mother’s strangulation death
- Suspect arrested at Roswell Road apartment after police standoff
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