Police Facial Recognition DUI Kiosks Coming to a City Near You

By MassPrivateI

Breathalytics and Precision Kiosk Technologies are trying to convince courtrooms, probation officers and police to purchase self-service biometric DUI kiosks.

Participants login to the kiosk with a fingerprint scan, while a camera records the session and confirms the user’s identity with facial recognition software. (Source: Breathalytics)

Breathalytics will scan a participants fingers while simultaneously confirming their identity with facial recognition software. (To find out more about their fingerprint scanner click here.)

Don’t you just love how they use the word ‘participants’ instead of parolee, because truth in advertising hurts.

Imagine if this was their slogan: “Breathalytics will scan parolees’ fingers while simultaneously scanning their faces.” It sounds much more invasive now, doesn’t it?

Breathalytics claims their goal is to reduce recidivism and alcohol abuse. Which is just a fancy way of saying they hope courts and police departments will buy them.

Probation and parole officers build counselor-style relationships with their ‘clients.’ The need to open each meeting with a breath test wastes time and undermines the trust and open communication essential to rehabilitation. (Source: Integrated Biometrics)

And who doesn’t want a ‘counselor’ that records your biometrics?

Precision’s ‘Automated Breathalyzer’ (AB) kiosks also use fingerprints, cameras and videos on participants. (Click here to watch their video.)

How long before courts and probation officers start using self-service DUI kiosks?

That’s hard to tell, but Sheriff’s Offices in three Wisconsin counties are already using them. How long before police across the country begin using them?

How accurate are DUI kiosks?

image credit: TMJ4

Breathalytics claims their DUI kiosks were designed by ‘experts’ obsessed with every detail. And their goal is to “deliver a product that encapsulates the most advanced technology the alcohol monitoring industry has ever seen.”

It is the same story with AB kiosks, all they tell you is that ‘experts in the alcohol monitoring program’ designed them and we are supposed to trust them.

Breathalytics claims their kiosks use 1500 straws, three fuel cells and an automatic calibration system to determine if a participant is intoxicated.

And that’s it, Breathalytics doesn’t tell you how they determine if a participant is intoxicated or what their source code is.

If any of this is starting to sound familiar, read last year’s story about “inaccurate million dollar breathalyzers.”

What happens when a participant’s future is determined by a machine with secret software?

How will an attorney fight a positive reading without knowing how the machine determined a participant was intoxicated?

Can you really trust companies that make secret machines which profit from our justice system?

You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.