Ilitch cameras are watching you: Why you should care (even if you don't like hockey)

Nancy Kaffer | Detroit Free Press

If you've heard of facial recognition technology, you know it's controversial, and for good reason: It has a high mismatch rate, particularly for non-whites. Privacy and social justice advocates have raised alarms about facial recognition's potential misuse. And it's becoming omnipresent before most of us have given it much thought.

At least four large companies field private security forces and operate video surveillance networks in Detroit's downtown and Midtown: Bedrock, DTE Energy Co., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Ilitch Holdings Inc. I spoke to some of those companies four years ago about the camera networks they use and the security teams they employ.

Now, I'm trying to learn which companies use facial recognition technology on the images captured by thousands of business-owned video cameras.

But they don't have to disclose that to anyone. And that's kind of the problem.

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Spokespeople for Bedrock and Blue Cross quickly responded to my questions, saying that they don't use facial recognition or analytics.

A spokesman for DTE said the company won't discuss specifics of its security operation. All three companies said they share images with Detroit police when they believe it is appropriate.

But the Ilitches' Olympia Development declined repeated requests for an interview — even though press releases and promotional videos posted on a security contractor's website announced last summer that Ilitch Holdings had installed a security package that includes video analytics in The District, a 50-block area around Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena.

Most folks wouldn't question a business' authority to secure its own, private spaces. But areas like The District span blocks, and include public space.

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Avigilon, the contractor, noted in a press release that Ilitch Holdings' "complete security solution" includes 1,600 video surveillance cameras using Avigilon's video management software, and, per the website, facial analytics.

"Operators can initiate a search for a person by selecting certain specific physical descriptions, including clothing color and gender, to find a person of interest," the company's website explains. "Avigilon Appearance Search technology also incorporates the characteristics of a person's face, enabling the technology to search for the same person, even if items such as their clothing change over time."

Videos posted to Avigilon's YouTube channel show how its video management software can be used to track visitors at a venue, or set up a digital perimeter around a parked car.

"We are very concerned about the potentially negative consequences of the surveillance capabilities of the city, and we think that is reason to be alarmed by expansion of surveillance by private business as well," said Rodd Monts of the ACLU of Michigan. "In a city that is majority people of color, it's really problematic, because of the potential for misidentification."

How the Ilitch companies use this software, how often it is used to identify someone suspected of a crime, how often such identifications are passed to the Detroit police, whether the software has ever mistakenly identified the wrong suspect, what kind of requirements operators must satisfy before making an identification — those are all questions I would have loved to ask the executives who run Olympia's security operation.

"We don’t have a constitutional right to privacy with companies," said Clare Garvie of Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology. "Our relationship with companies is more bound by the ideas of notice and informed consent. Are customers engaging with this company aware? Is there transparency to the individual about that footage and how that kind of tracking can and can’t be used?"

Unlike the facial recognition tools used by the Detroit Police Department — the department can compare footage to images held by Secretary of State or the Michigan Department of Corrections — Avigilon's facial analytics tool seems only to compare images to other images captured by the same camera network, a distinction that Garvie says doesn't make a difference.

The Detroit Police Department's use of facial recognition technology caused a firestorm this summer because of concerns about the technology itself, and because the department had begun using the software without a publicly vetted, Board of Police Commissioners-approved policy.

Over months, Detroit police talked about how they use the technology, inviting reporters and police commissioners on tours of the Real Time Crime Center, and explained the standards the department requires for a positive identification. After months of contentious public hearings, the Board of Police Commissioners ultimately approved a policy.

However slowly it happened, that's transparency and accountability that companies using private security cameras to film and identify citizens haven't provided.

"There is just no argument for this to be done in secret, and that’s exactly how it’s being deployed," Garvie said. "I don’t want to live in a country where it’s private companies deciding what the balance between privacy and security is. That’s a question that should quintessentially be left up to the public and to elected legislators."

I want a safer city. But I want to understand how decisions intended to keep us safe are made. And who they have the potential to harm.

Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.