The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking half a million dollars from the federal government to expand the use of advanced facial-recognition systems to identify criminal suspects.
Police officials say the technology could be an important step in fighting crime.
"It's like a mobile electronic mug book," said Rampart Division Capt. Charles Beck. "It's not a silver bullet, but we wouldn't use it unless it helped us make arrests."
Civil liberties advocates are less enthusiastic about the technology, questioning its reliability and the privacy issues it raises.
The potential of the facial-recognition technology could be seen in a recent police stop on Alvarado Street just west of downtown Los Angeles, where police have been testing the cameras.
Two young men were illegally riding double on a bicycle. LAPD Officers Mark Hubert and David Nick suspected the two were gang members. If so, they might have been in violation of an injunction barring those named in court documents from a variety of activities in the area, including gathering in public.
As they questioned the pair, Rampart Division Senior Lead Officer Mike Wang pointed a hand-held computer with a camera attached toward the man on the bicycle seat.
Facial-recognition software in the device compared the image with those in a database that includes photos of recent fugitives, as well as 78 members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang and 45 members of the 18th Street gang. The groups are two of the city's largest Latino gangs, both with bases in the area covered by the LAPD's Rampart Division.
Within seconds, the screen had displayed a gallery of nine faces with contours similar to the man's. The computer concluded that one of those images -- of Jose Hernandez, an 18th Street member subject to the civil injunction -- was the closest match, with a 94% probability of accuracy.
It was enough to trigger a search, and officers say they found a small amount of methamphetamine on one of the men -- later confirmed to be Hernandez.
Hernandez, 18, was arrested on suspicion of violating the injunction by possessing illegal drugs. The city attorney's office says a decision about whether to charge him is pending. Attempts to reach Hernandez for comment were unsuccessful.
Hernandez is among 19 suspects arrested so far as a result of the Rampart Division's use of the cameras, which were donated and are still considered experimental.
