Overview
- About 50 officers are using Axon AB4 body cameras through December, with software capturing faces within roughly four feet and comparing them to a 6,341-person police list.
- Officers do not receive live alerts from the system, and potential matches are reviewed after the fact by a trained team.
- Police say non-matching images are deleted, still images used for matching will be purged after the pilot, and all data is encrypted and stored in Canada.
- Edmonton police describe the test as a way to identify potentially dangerous individuals and those with serious outstanding warrants, while critics warn it turns accountability tools into surveillance.
- The pilot marks a reversal for Axon, whose CEO said in 2019 the company would not commercialize face matching on body cameras due to ethical and technical concerns.