DENVER (KUSA) – ICE is reportedly purchasing technology to scan people’s eyes from several feet away.
The agency issued a notice to purchase artificial intelligence technology that can scan people’s eyes to locate and identify those who are in the country illegally.
The technology allows agents to capture someone’s iris from 10 to 15 feet away by using the camera on their iPhone with an app that matches the iris with a photo they already have.
“The iris is the part of your eye that everybody sees. The color, it has stripes in it… They are unique to an individual,” Steve Beaty said.
Beaty is a computer science professor at Metropolitan State University Denver.
“You can do it from quite a distance away, depending upon the magnification of your device,” he said.
On a government contract database, ICE said it is considering two of the company’s products – one that can identify offenders based on their iris and another that provides that data on a mobile app.
The technology compares the iris scan to other existing photos, like a criminal database photo or even a social media account.
“Facial recognition companies have trolled, essentially, have scraped the internet for photos,” Beaty said.
Biometric scanning is not new to several states, like Colorado, but it is also regulated.
“The way that we saw facial recognition working was with one to identify and match, right, versus profiling. That’s two different things,” said Jennifer Bacon, a Democratic Colorado state representative.
Bacon cosponsored a law in 2022 that required police agencies to share how they planned to use facial recognition and required it not to be the sole reason for an arrest or investigation.
The Arvada Police Department is one of the agencies that use it. Last year, they used it to identify a person in distress.
“We know that AI shows up to help make things easier, but we have to differentiate between when AI is used as a tool to help make things easier,” Bacon said.
At the federal level, facial recognition is not regulated the same way.
“That’s why the states are worried about it,” Beaty said.
It is important to note that ICE has not confirmed its plans to use the technology in the field.
A spokesperson for ICE said the agency uses various forms of technology while respecting civil liberties.
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