Mobile Biometric Technologies (Boston Police Department)
| Submitted | Aug. 3, 2015 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Michael Morisy
Dear Custodian of Records/Public Records Coordinator,
I am collaborating with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest group, and the media organization MuckRock, to survey how law enforcement agencies deploy mobile biometric technologies.
Mobile biometric technologies can be defined as any mobile device or mobile app used by law enforcement agencies to scan, capture, analyze, store, or automatically recognize any physical or biological characteristic of a subject. Commonly used mobile biometric technologies include fingerprint/thumbprint collection, facial recognition, scans of the iris or other elements of the human eye, Rapid DNA, and tattoo recognition. (Please see below for examples.)
Pursuant to Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I request the following records pertaining to mobile biometric technologies, including those listed above, as well as other biometric technologies I have not identified:
1) Purchasing and procurement documents, including but not limited to: purchase orders, RFPs, responses to RFPs, invoices and contracts
2) Policy, procedural, and training documents, including but not limited to: use policies, standard operating procedures, training materials, presentations, privacy assessments, data retention policies, and other guidelines
3) Programming documents, including but not limited to: funding opportunity announcements, grant applications and grantor status/progress reports, reports to legislative bodies, annual reports
4) Audit documents, including but not limited to: audits of the system, misuse reports, and reports to oversight bodies
In your response, I would appreciate that you individually address each of the above categories of documents individually.
In addition to the above classes of documents, I am also seeking the following information:
- The total number of individuals whose biometric data has been collected over the last three years,
- The total number of [biometric data points] contained in the agency’s database
- The retention period for biometric data
- The number of mobile biometrics devices purchased and in use
- The total number of authorized users of the mobile biometrics devices
- Which external agencies and entities have access to biometric data in the database and under what conditions,
- Whether biometric data is combined with biographic data such as name and address in the database, and
- The process by which data is entered into the database
These documents will be published online and inform the public dialog over police technology. Because of the great public interest in these issues, I ask that you waive any fees. If your agency is unable to do so, please contact me with an estimate of the costs.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Michael Morisy
Examples:
Mobile facial recognition
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/08/cir-facial-recognition-software-san-diego/
Mobile fingerprint readers
http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1824&issue_id=62009
Mobile iris scanners
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/us-crime-identification-iris-idUSTRE76J4A120110720
Rapid DNA
http://www.policemag.com/channel/technology/articles/2014/02/speeding-up-dna-analysis.aspx
Mobile Tattoo Recognition
http://www.lawofficer.com/articles/print/volume-10/issue-4/features/new-smartphone-app-interprets.html
From: Media Relations
August 4, 2015
Michael Morisy
Muckrock
Dear Mr. Morisy:
Pursuant to G. L. c. 66, § 10 (b), this correspondence is to confirm
receipt of your request for documents that are potentially in the
possession, custody or control of the Boston Police Department.
Specifically, you have requested:
records pertaining to mobile biometric technologies, including those listed
above, as well as other biometric technologies I have not identified:
1) Purchasing and procurement documents, including but not limited to:
purchase orders, RFPs, responses to RFPs, invoices and contracts
2) Policy, procedural, and training documents, including but not limited
to: use policies, standard operating procedures, training materials,
presentations, privacy assessments, data retention policies, and other
guidelines
3) Programming documents, including but not limited to: funding opportunity
announcements, grant applications and grantor status/progress reports,
reports to legislative bodies, annual reports
4) Audit documents, including but not limited to: audits of the system,
misuse reports, and reports to oversight bodies
In your response, I would appreciate that you individually address each of
the above categories of documents individually.
In addition to the above classes of documents, I am also seeking the
following information:
- The total number of individuals whose biometric data has been collected
over the last three years,
- The total number of [biometric data points] contained in the agency’s
database
- The retention period for biometric data
- The number of mobile biometrics devices purchased and in use
- The total number of authorized users of the mobile biometrics devices
- Which external agencies and entities have access to biometric data in the
database and under what conditions,
- Whether biometric data is combined with biographic data such as name and
address in the database, and
- The process by which data is entered into the database
We will contact you as soon as possible with our findings, and will send
you a cost estimate for your requested materials if fulfilling the request
is expected to exceed $10.00, per 950 C.M.R. 32.06(1); 950 C.M.R. 32.03;
M.G.L. c 66 § 10(a).
Please be advised that we research each request in the order it was
received, and it may take longer than ten days to be fulfilled. If your
request requires a substantial amount of research, reviewing and redacting,
fulfilling the request will take a significant amount of time. Please plan
accordingly.
Thank you,
Office of Media Relations
Boston Police Department
617-343-3520
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 3, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Media Relations
Dear Mr. Morisy,
There are no documents responsive to your public records request.
Thank you,
Boston Police Department
1 Schroeder Plaza
Boston, MA 02120
Files
There are no files associated with this request.