ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) will once again use facial recognition technology.
The department previously used the technology to identify unknown suspects but stopped after the software provider discontinued the service.
This time around, ACSO will have to abide by new rules. In 2022, the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 22-113, which requires law enforcement agencies that want to use facial recognition technology to comply with several regulations. It established an accountability report, which describes how the software is used. Once published, the report is to be discussed in several public meetings to obtain feedback from the community.
“It’s important for us to get the feedback from those citizens with concerns,” said Deputy John Bartmann with ACSO.
Bartmann said there were a number of misunderstandings about the use of facial recognition technology. According to ACSO, the software scans the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium (CISC), which compiles booking photos from law enforcement agencies across the state. The scan reveals possible matches, which law enforcement can use to establish leads in a case.
“There’s no social media scraping, no getting photos of the internet or anything like that,” said Bartmann. “These are booking photos done by law enforcement agencies that are part of CISC.”
ACSO planned three public meetings to discuss the technology and accountability report. The first and second have already passed, but the third and final meeting will be held in-person on Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. at the Eloise May Library in Denver.
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