Rio de Janeiro
On the occasion of the release of two people unjustly detained after being identified by the new facial recognition program of the Military Police in Rio de Janeiro, the Secretariat of Public Security declared on Friday (5) that “inconsistencies in the system may occur, due to a database update problem”.
“That is why the secretariat is working to unify and integrate these databases (police, justice and federal government) to provide maximum automation to this process and consequently faster approaches,” reads a note from the department.
After announcing the program, the government of Cláudio Castro (PL) declared that it was preparing the integration of information from the BNMP-National Bank of Arrest Warrants, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) with that of the State. Currently, Rio uses data from the civil police arrest warrant registration system.
According to the Secretariat of Public Security, the facial recognition system uses accurate software. “If it shows information about a person with an open arrest warrant, it is the police’s job to contact that person and check the information,” he said.
The Military Police searches for information in the Civil Police system, which uses “SIPWeb”. The database, according to the company, depends on the updating by the Judiciary.
The Court of Justice of Rio stated that the correct database for the query is BNMP2.0 – CNJ National Bank of Arrest Warrants. If there is no pending arrest warrant in this system, “no arrest warrant outside the bank could be served.”
The lawyer, tech expert and columnist for Sheet Ronaldo Lemos said that inconsistent or inadequate databases are some of the reasons why the use of facial recognition has been questioned around the world.
“Another reason is the characteristics of the system itself, which has error rates. Facial recognition technology works better in closed places such as airports than in a city where there are huge variations in recognition conditions, such as light and weather “, has explained.
According to Lemos, this type of technology has been banned due to the injustices it can generate. “The percentage of errors is very high and these systems end up having a negative impact on the populations that already suffer from undue or unjust actions”, he said.
In Rio, the project went into operation on Copacabana Beach, Arpoador and Barra da Tijuca on Sunday evening (31), during the New Year celebrations. As of last Friday, four people had been arrested after being identified by cameras as fugitives.
However, this Thursday (4) two releases took place because the arrest warrant pending in the wanted system was invalid.
According to digital law specialist André Marseille, the Constitution requires that the public manager undertakes to ensure that his management uses not only the necessary but also efficient resources for the administration of the State.
“The acquisition of the system is a public expense that must be committed for the functionality of the bank, i.e. for its integration capacity. If this does not happen, the responsible public body and agent may be held legally responsible for the inadequacy of the implementation of the system and also because fugitives are no longer arrested due to inconsistencies,” the lawyer said.
Unsolved cases
This Thursday (4), a man was released after undergoing a custody hearing. According to the process through which he was on the run, the release permit was issued in June 2020 and executed by the bailiff on the same day. Therefore, Judge Bruno Rodrigues Pinto deemed the arrest illegal.
“From reading the original trial, I see that, after the issuing of the arrest order, natural justice declared the prisoner’s sentence extinguished and ordered the release of a release permit. Therefore, considering that the execution of the arrest order arrest is manifestly illegal, I declare the illegitimacy of the arrest and order the release of a release permit in favor of the detained person”, wrote the judge in an excerpt of the decision.
The Argentinian man was arrested for the first time in 2016 and in 2020 he was sentenced to four months in prison for stealing from a supermarket. But the sentence was overturned because he had already spent eight months in prison and the judge in charge of the case understood that he had already served his sentence.
He was arrested last Tuesday (2), in Copacabana, after a facial recognition camera issued an alarm due to the arrest warrant appearing in the system. The same happened to a woman identified as a fugitive from justice through video surveillance on the seafront.
The program incorrectly highlighted that there was an outstanding 2012 arrest warrant for robbery and conspiracy against her.
At the police station, civil police officers suspected that the data in the system was out of date. After contacting the Criminal Enforcement Court, the officers verified that the warrant had already been served previously, and the woman was released.
2024-01-06 00:07:00
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