Avon Police Department Community Outreach about Facial Recognition Technology

 
The Avon Police Department is seeking community public comment regarding its request to use facial recognition as a crime fighting tool to assist in solving criminal investigations. 

Facial recognition technology currently assists law enforcement in comparing photographs of criminal suspects that have been taken from business or residential security camera footage or witness cell phone photographs. The screen grab must be of a sufficient high resolution to be compared and examined.  

These suspect photographs are compared against databases of suspect arrest booking photographs held by police departments or sheriff’s offices in Colorado, and suspect booking arrest photographs held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police departments can also request a comparison against driver’s license photographs held within the Colorado Department of Revenue Motor Vehicle driver’s license database. 

Any similar matches will be treated as investigative leads and Avon Police Department Police Officers or Detectives will build cases with other information or evidence in conjunction to any facial similarities. 

This process is driven by the Colorado Legislature Senate Bill 22-113, in particular Colorado Revised Statutes § 24-18-301 through § 24-18-309.

Avon Police Chief Greg Daly will host three public meetings in Avon to discuss facial recognition technology and answer any questions.

• Wednesday, March 29 at 7:00 p.m. at the Aspens Mobile Home Park Community Center, 901 W. Beaver Creek Blvd.
• Saturday April 15 at 11:00 a.m. at the Avon Public Library, 200 Mikaela Way
• Tuesday, April 25 at 5:00 p.m. at the regular Avon Town Council meeting, 100 Mikaela Way

If approved by the Avon Town Council, all Avon Police officers will undergo a four-hour familiarization training session in the use of facial recognition and our two detectives will complete a more comprehensive 24-hour training program. 

To learn more about facial recognition technology or submit a public comment, visit Avon.org/facialrec.