The police in this city became the first in the country to adopt the use of so-called face-printing technology. They use 36 cameras, linked with a software program called FaceIt, that scan the faces of people walking along Seventh Avenue and compare them with 30,000 images in a database of people that the police deem suspicious. According to press reports, the database, maintained jointly by the county sheriff's office and the Tampa police, includes records ranging from "people with criminal records" to "runaways," to "terrorists."

The Tampa cops and the FBI first used similar high-tech surveillance equipment during the Super Bowl last January, scanning the faces of more than 100,000 people without their knowledge as they entered Raymond James Stadium.

The City Council then approved, in a one-year "trial period," the use of the surveillance system in Ybor City, near downtown Tampa, where people gather in large numbers, especially on the weekends. To promote this spying technology, the company providing it won't charge the city government unless it chooses to keep it.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) publicly released a letter to city officials July 6, demanding information on "what is being done with the captured video images of thousands of unsuspecting visitors and residents under a new video surveillance program."

In the letter, Randall Marshall, legal director of the Florida ACLU, requested a copy of the police department's records on the use of the electronic snooping during the Super Bowl, and threatened to file a lawsuit against the city.

On the night of July 14, around 100 people held a protest in Ybor City against the police surveillance plan. They came wearing disguises such as bandannas, Groucho Marx glasses, and gas masks to register their opposition to the "Big Brother is watching you" police tactics.

May Becker, 29, a student at the University of South Florida, told the July 15 St. Petersburg Times, "Being watched on a public street is just plain wrong. We shouldn't be treated as criminals."

The protest was organized by the Tampa Bay Action Group, a coalition of 30 organizations affiliated with the People's Global Network.

Interviewed by the Militant, Eric Rubin, one of the organizers of the protest, said, "Facial profiling is no different than racial profiling. The powers that be say they are using it supposedly to fight crime, but it is another way to criminalize people, particularly communities of color."

He added, "The national response comes from people's concern about the questions of civil rights and invasion of privacy, but it is really much deeper than that."

In the July 15 St. Petersburg Times, columnist Jan Glidewell wrote, "My fear is that the unplanned piecemeal surrender of our privacy might not be as sinister as [some people think] but that, one way or the other, it will be very difficult to get it back once it is gone."

Opponents of the new police surveillance planned to attend a July 19 meeting of the Tampa city council to protest. "This has to be stopped dead in its tracks," said Rubin.

Tampa is the first city in the country where the "FaceIt" technology is being used for routine surveillance, but Virginia Beach is seeking a $150,000 state grant for a similar system.

The ACLU issued a statement July 11, together with Congressman Richard Armey, calling on state and local governments "to stop using these dangerous technologies now." They demanded to know the extent to which the federal government is funding "facial-recognition" technologies.

The statement pointed to Colorado, where the Department of Motor Vehicles is moving ahead with a plan approved by the legislature to create a database containing computerized three-dimensional facial maps of all people applying for driver's licenses.

The statement said, "There is an alarming potential for misuse of all of these systems. Used in conjunction with facial-recognition software, for example, the Colorado database could allow the public movements of every citizen in the state to be identified, tracked, recorded and stored."

Rachele Fruit is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1625.  
 
 
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