As they pass through a hand-held metal detector scan ... remember the Tampa Super Bowl? http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0201-01.htm
Super Bowl fans never knew it, but police video cameras focused on their faces, one by one, as they streamed through the turnstiles in Tampa on Sunday. Cables instantly carried the images to computers, which spent less than a second comparing them with thousands of digital portraits of known criminals and suspected terrorists.
In a control booth deep inside the stadium, police watched and waited for a match.
The extraordinary test of technology during the highest-profile U.S. sporting event of the year yielded one hit, a ticket scalper who vanished into the crowd, reported an official at the company that installed the cameras.
But the decision to scan the unwitting crowd at the Super Bowl and countless visitors to the popular entertainment district of Ybor City for days before the big game inspired support and opposition yesterday over the nature of the technology and its intended uses.
Police spoke of a benign new law enforcement tactic no more intrusive than the use of a video camera at a convenience store. Civil libertarians challenged the involuntary videotaping of football fans and the growing use by police agencies of digital databases of physical traits.
"This was just the latest tool," said Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin, who reported that the system made 19 matches during Super Bowl week. All had criminal histories but had committed no crimes of a "significant nature." He said police made no arrests as a result of the surveillance cameras' use.
"It's identifying these people who have a propensity to whatever led them into being in the database, whether it's a known pickpocket or a flimflam person," Durkin said. "Had the system been able to identify a known terrorist and had Tampa police been able to stop him, this tool would have been invaluable."
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