Aurora police to ask City Council for approval to use facial recognition tech

The Aurora Police Department will ask Aurora councilmembers at Monday night’s study session for approval to use facial recognition technology.

The technology would give police opportunities to enhance productivity, crime solvability, effectiveness and safety, according to council documents.

If approved, facial recognition technology would cost about $171,000 over four years.

Access to facial recognition search results would only be provided to Aurora officers who are authorized to have access and complete applicable training, council documents say.

Authorized uses of facial recognition technology include the following, as stated by council documents:

A reasonable suspicion that an identifiable person committed or plans to commit a crimeActive or ongoing criminal investigationsMitigating imminent threats to health or safetyAssisting in identification of a person without capacity to identify themselvesInvestigating tips and leadsAssisting in the identification of potential witnesses or victims of violent crimeSupporting law enforcement in critical incident responses

Aurora police are authorized to use Lumen, which is a system that can compare a single “probe” image against criminal justice record images, and Clearview IA, which uses machine-learning facial recognition to search uploaded “probe” images against a database of more than 30 billion publicly available images.

Also in Monday’s study session, councilmembers will hear a proposal to raise the current E911 surcharge rate, which was last adjusted in April 2024.

If the ordinance passes at a future regular council meeting, the maximum allowed rate would go from $2.12 to $2.17.

Monday night’s study session is open to the public via livestream at 4:30 p.m. The public comment listening session will start at 6 p.m. and the regular meeting of the council will follow at 6:45 p.m.

Meetings are livestreamed at the Paul Tauer Aurora Council Chambers, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, and on AuroraTV.org, YouTube.com/TheAuroraChannel and cable channels 8 and 880.