Facial recognition audit logs/usage statistics (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department)

Thank you for your interest in public records of the City of Indianapolis and Marion County.

This message acknowledges your request has been received and is being processed in accordance with the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, Indiana Code chapter 5-14-3-1, et. seq ("APRA"). Your request was received in this office on 6/11/2020 and given the reference number P007888-061120 for tracking purposes.

You requested the following records: "To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) Copies of all user guides, handbooks, technical manuals, or comparable documents in the department's possession regarding department facial recognition system(s). These systems are commonly provided by vendors including, but not limited to, NEC, Dataworks Plus, Clearview AI, Cognitec, and others. The entirety of this request should be construed to include facial recognition systems provided by commercial vendors or developed internally.

2) Copies of all audit logs for the department's facial recognition system from Jan. 1, 2020 until the date this request is processed. Facial recognition vendors commonly include daily, weekly, or monthly audit log capabilities in their products and the U.S. Department of Justice recommends that all law enforcement agencies maintain audit logs for facial recognition systems (see: https://it.ojp.gov/GIST/1204/Face-Recognition-Policy-Development-Template-For-Use-In-Criminal-Intelligence-and-Investigative-Activities). If the department's facial recognition system provides options for the time period covered in the audit logs, I ask that you provide weekly logs (rather than daily, monthly, etc.).

3) All reports detailing aggregated usage/transaction statistics for the department's facial recognition system from May 1, 2020 until the date this request is processed. Commercial facial recognition systems include the ability to easily view these daily, weekly, or monthly aggregate reports, which often detail the number of queries per day, number of daily users, number of photographs/facial templates uploaded to the database, etc. If the department's facial recognition system provides options for the time period covered in the aggregate usage or transaction statistics, I ask that you provide daily reports (rather than hourly, weekly, monthly, etc.).

4) Any documents (this includes screenshots of program dashboards) detailing the number of photographs or facial templates included in the database linked to the department's facial recognition system as of the date this request is processed.

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist (examples of my recent work can be found at toddfeathers.com) and I intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest and not for any commercial purpose.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://accounts.muckrock.com/accounts/login/?url_auth_token=AAARlSnPkesjD6gFL9BF9upBpd8%3A1jjT1O%3AQS1KQqIhmAvarSR8NoECFzqxvFo&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muckrock.com%2Faccounts%2Flogin%2F%3Fnext%3D%252Faccounts%252Fagency_login%252Findianapolis-police-department-660%252Ffacial-recognition-audit-logsusage-statistics-indianapolis-metropolitan-police-department-94324%252F%253Femail%253DIMPDRecordsRequest%252540indy.gov"
Your request will be forwarded to the relevant city or county agency for review and a determination of whether there are public records responsive to your request and, if so, whether those public records are disclosable to you. The city or county agency will contact you concerning your request and inform you whether there are public records responsive to your request, if all or part of those public records are not disclosable to you, and the statutory basis for any denial. Information pertaining to any copying fees that may be related to obtaining copies will be provided. Please Note: With respect to public records requests that include e-mail communications, we want to make you aware that these requests generally take longer than requests for other types of information.  First, the City/County receives a large number of requests for email communications, not just public records requests but also related to legal proceedings.  We rely upon our information technology agency to perform these searches and that agency runs these searches (based  upon reasonably particular search terms as set forth by the State Public Access Counselor) in the order in which the requests are received.  Once the email search is completed, there must also be a review of the content of the email communications to ensure that they are not only responsive to your request but also disclosable.  Finally, disclosable email communications will be produced after this review and if we do not disclose all or part of these email communications, we will provide the statutory bases for such denials as required under the APRA.

The APRA requires public agencies to produce responsive and disclosable public records, should they exist, within a reasonable time based upon the circumstances.   Please allow the agency time to review and process your request.  Depending on the nature of the request, this may be several days.

If you have not received any response and at least 10 days have passed since submission, feel free to contact the Public Access Counselor to check the status.  Additionally, if you have general questions about the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, please contact the Public Access Counselor at any time.

You may reach the Public Access Counselor at 317.327.4055 or PAC@indy.gov. (mailto:PAC@indy.gov)

Thank you,

City of Indianapolis and Marion County

--- Please respond above this line ---

Mr. Feathers,
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has nothing responsive to your request.
Sincerely,
Marianne McCalip
Paralegal, IMPD