Notice that this technology is to be used on people merely suspected of having committed crimes, not only on those who are guilty. In a police state, everyone guilty until they prove themselves otherwise. This technology was first used on a civilian population by occupation troops in Iraq. We’ve said it many times before and we’ll say it again: Tools, weapons, and tactics developed for use in war zones can and will be used against civilians at home.
December 11, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ — In a move questioned by the New York Civil Liberties Union and some of New York’s top lawyers, the New York Police Department is now using machines to photograph and scan the irises of prisoners as they pass through New York Central Booking. The department claims that this new high-tech identification program is part of a failsafe measure meant to prevent escapes as suspects move through New York’s complex and winding court system.
Individuals deeply concerned with civil liberties and privacy, like New York top lawyer David Perecman, are uneasy with new regime of personal data collection.
“The NYPD can now photograph the irises of suspects arrested for any reason and they implemented this without any legislative oversight or public discourse,” said David Perecman. “There are also no reports on how authorities plan to protect this collected biometric data from misuse.”
News of the initiative was first released late last week. Civil libertarians and privacy advocates say the collecting and storing of this data could “put innocent people under permanent suspicion.”
Read more at 24/7 Press Release.
