{"id":43733,"date":"2024-04-04T12:47:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T16:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=43733"},"modified":"2024-04-04T17:08:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T21:08:56","slug":"lakeland-downtown-development-authority-ldda-will-turn-off-the-facial-recognition-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/04\/04\/lakeland-downtown-development-authority-ldda-will-turn-off-the-facial-recognition-function\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA) will turn off the facial recognition function"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Julie Townsend Exec Dir LDDA<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA) will turn off the facial recognition function that comes standard with the security cameras we recently installed. The LDDA considers cameras an affordable and unbiased way to provide additional sets of eyes in the district to help keep the district clean and safe. The cameras were not purchased or installed because of facial recognition technology (FRT), but we certainly appreciated the opportunity to use the software to enhance the safety of Downtown. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The ACLU has made it clear that it plans to litigate the issue. The harmful effects of pointless litigation that the LDDA can not afford outweigh the small benefits that facial recognition would have provided. We have instructed our service provider to disable the FRT software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, we have removed the three faces loaded into the facial recognition software. Those faces belonged to three men who met the LDDA criteria for using the software and have: harassed and threatened an LDDA employee, trapping her briefly in her office; harassed and stolen from a Farmers Market vendor resulting in being trespassed from the Market; and a man with a long-standing record of threats, harassment, and aggressive behavior that led to an injunction being issued against him several years ago by a Downtown property owner and who has been trespassed from multiple businesses. We will no longer know or receive notice when those three faces, or any others, enter the camera space of the Downtown district. LDDA, in partnership with the Downtown businesses, will continue with our long-standing, unofficial neighborhood watch program of notifying each other when there are threats to people or property. The cameras without facial recognition are helpful in that effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LDDA takes great pride in innovation: innovating events, innovating ways to keep the district clean and safe; innovating in any way that draws people to our district and helps create and sustain a sense of community and joy.  But if anyone<\/strong><\/em> thinks we are innovators in the American surveillance state, public and private, they are woefully na\u00efve. This software capability is standard on most cameras. What is not standard is a commitment to explain to the public what we wanted to do and why.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experience has not at all diminished our commitment to serve and protect visitors to Downtown Lakeland, our businesses, employees, and properties in the district. The cameras will continue to serve as a valuable tool in our efforts to keep Downtown clean and safe as they were originally intended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Commissioner Mike Musick as a commissioner and LDDA board member there were conversations about the facial recognition software and he recommended the facial recognition technology was turned off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Could the LDDA be in violation of the Florida Digital Bill of Rights Law?<\/a><\/blockquote>