Facial recognition software and marketing - September 2019

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 10/3/2019 and given the reference number P005143-100319 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:

Records and materials related to the solicitation, acquisition, and use of face recognition technology and related software and services.

This software or services may be provided by Rekognition, Face++, and FaceFirst; this request is applicable to these and any other company providing facial recognition services under consideration or contract with this agency.

Materials responsive materials include but are not limited to:

• Agreements: contracts (including non-disclosure agreements), licensing agreements, nondisclosure agreements

• Bid records: Requests For Proposal (or equivalent calls for bids), sole source or limited source justification and approval documentation, documentation of selection, and other materials generated in the consideration and selection of the technology in question

• Company relations and communications: records related to meetings or follow-up actions with any vendors, companies, or other private entities marketing face recognition to this agency for immigration, intelligence, law enforcement, or other use.

• Financial records: purchase orders, invoices, and other memoranda and documentation.

• Marketing records: All marketing materials - unsolicited, requested, or otherwise - acquired from vendors of face recognition technology

• Policy records: any policy directives, guidance documents, memoranda, training materials, or similar records governing the use of face recognition technology for immigration, law enforcement, or other purposes.

• Training records: training material governing the use, sharing, or access to any related data related to or collected by the face recognition software/technology, including the legal standard that is required before using the technology

• Use and function records: Materials that describe the function of the software considered or in use by this agency, including emails, handouts, PowerPoint presentations, advertisements, or specification documents.

Please limit the search to records produced from January 1, 2017 – present. Please include in your search as responsive records: communications, memorandums, background papers, meeting minutes, email exchanges, or presentation materials. If your office has questions about this request, please feel free to direct them to the address associated with this request or call the MuckRock office at 617-299-1832.

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,

Beryl Lipton"
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 ---

Good afternoon,
Please be advised that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has no records responsive to this request.
Sincerely,
Marianne McCalip
IMPD Paralegal