Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2001 Contact: http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/ Author: Joan Walters COPS SCAN PEARSON TRAVELLERS The RCMP is using face recognition at Canada's largest airport to identify drug dealers and other criminals. The system, similar to one at Ontario casinos, lets police feed a suspect's image into a criminal database, looking for mug-shot matches. The facial-scanning system at Pearson International is believed to be the first in North America to operate at a port-of-entry airport. RCMP confirm they use face scans when a suspicious person is spotted and then detained to check his or her identity and criminal record. There is no general video scanning of travellers at any time, according to RCMP spokesman Michele Paradis. But the RCMP did not respond to questions about whether it submits videotape of a suspicious person to the mug-shot database without the subject's knowledge, or the exact circumstances in which the technology is used. The system is from Imagis Technologies Inc., a Vancouver firm whose chairman of the board is Oliver (Buck) Revell, former deputy director of the FBI and an anti-terrorism expert. Company advisers include Norman Inkster, former commissioner of the RCMP and a one-time head of Interpol, and Reid Morden, who was director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the late 1980s. Morden was not able to speak about how the RCMP system works, but said face scans are an effective tool against drugs, terrorism and organized crime. "I bet every time you went through Heathrow Airport, you didn't know that if you walk up a certain ramp, somebody is taking a good look at you," said Morden, chairman of the corporate intelligence unit for KPMG consultants. "But if you were faced, as the British are, with the kind of random violence of the IRA, is that a justified invasion of your privacy? I think it probably is." Even so, rules will be needed soon for what he calls the "Wild West that's out there" in new technology. Huge political pressures and the fast pace of identity technology development raise the risk of privacy invasion, said Morden, the former CSIS boss. "There's been a lot of criticism about our extremely porous border, which has certainly raised the political temperature in the U.S.," he said. "I don't think we've had that same level of criticism from the people who are counterparts of the Canadian agencies, the American immigration service, the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency." But political heat is on, and for Canada to change its reputation as a gateway for illegal and often criminal immigration, borders must tighten -- even while budgets are cut. Low-manpower solutions like biometrics might prove irresistible even though privacy advocates say they are invasive. "People with privacy concerns, and legislators, will have to turn their mind to what is an appropriate use of the technology and where it can be used," Morden said. Biometrics refers to the electronic identification of a person by measuring distinctive biological characteristics such as faces, fingers or hands. Face recognition is popular because so many photos of individuals already exist. But it is controversial. Ontario's privacy commissioner launched an investigation into face scanning at Ontario casinos after The Spectator revealed police were secretly using their own high-tech system to find cheats. That technology, from a different U.S. supplier, lets the OPP compare images from live video surveillance inside the casinos to a digital database of criminal mug shots. As with all such systems, the image of a suspect can be captured on video, digitized and then scanned against a database of facial images for hits. The systems can search thousands of faces on file to produce matches, according to what police have asked for. The system is not foolproof and not as sophisticated as it is about to become in the next six months, says Iain Drummond, chief executive of Imagis. Matches still need to be visually checked, but finding out who someone is or whether they have a record can be done at near light speed. "We use a mathematical process that picks up about 250 areas of the face, looking for difference in gradation, things like curvature of the eye socket," Drummond said. A criminal might be able to change appearances, things like mustache, hair colour, even some features with plastic surgery. But bone structure does not change, making it possible to nab suspects who otherwise would pass. "They must sound to the public like they're engaged in some sort of James Bond activity," says Gary Jonosko, a Lakehead University professor specializing in surveillance. "But this is a fairly common practice around the world. It's new to Canada, perhaps, but not exactly new." Face recognition emerged in the past decade, at first because England needed to identify leaders of soccer hooliganism in the early 1990s. Then it became evident how powerful a tool face scanning could be, both to confirm identity and do surveillance. For the past two years, the English community of Newham has scanned faces in a pilot project with more than 300 cameras. They are hooked up to a control room that scans passersby for matches with criminals. Many businesses already use face scans to confirm customer identity, and scans are emerging as a security check for automated bank machines. Face scanning is also used internally by law enforcement agencies across North America, including the RCMP. About 30 regular RCMP detachments, including Newmarket, western Canada and the Maritimes, use a different computer system from Imagis, which includes face scans on booking. When a suspect is fingerprinted, photographed and processed, the system enters the data digitally into each detachment's database. This means officers in a cruiser can later take a digital picture of an offender and compare it with the local database. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake