As President of the FBI's Chapter of InfraGard in Dayton, I suggested this topic and the FBI flew in this speaker for an in-person presentation at Wright State University. We also had more than 750 register to watch online.
I wrote the story below for the newsletter published monthly for members of the FBI Cincinnati Citizens Academy Alumni Association.
The FBI flew subject matter expert Richard W. Vorder Bruegge, Ph.D. to Dayton from its headquarters in Quantico to talk about facial recognition at the March program meeting of the Dayton Chapter of InfraGard. Held in person in front of a large crowd at Wright State University, there were also more than 750 who registered to watch online. Members of the FBICCAAA were also invited and attended.
“We are here to protect the Constitution and protect the people of this country,” said Dr. Vorder Bruegge, senior physical scientist in the FBI’s Operational Technology Division, as he introduced the topic. “We are not out grabbing images wherever we can, trying to trap people. Frankly, we don’t have the time to do a lot of things that people think we might be doing.”
With the FBI since 1995, Dr. Vorder Bruegge is responsible for overseeing science and technology developments in the imaging sciences, as well as consulting on other more general science and technology issues. He has testified as an expert witness in state, federal, and foreign courts over 60 times.
Dr. Vorder Bruegge declined to talk about the role that facial recognition technology is playing in the more than 800 arrests so far in the aftermath of the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. However, he did speak about the improvements in the technology since 2013, when authorities were unable to identify “the man in the white hat,” who turned out to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing.
Dr. Vorder Bruegge said that the FBI currently has 46 million photos in its next-generation database, mugshots acquired from other state and federal agencies. Each is backed up by a corresponding set of the individual’s all ten fingerprints. And he explained that while the overall shape, hairline, facial hair, eyes, eyebrows, nose, and cheeks are important, it is a person’s ears, facial lines and creases, moles, blemishes, scars, and tattoos that clinch identification.
“We aren’t letting computers make any decisions, any final decisions,” Dr. Vorder Bruegge said. “We have trained human beings look at our outputs and decide, “Is this a lead really worth following?” And if they decide that it’s a lead worth following, then they’re not going to go and arrest the person. They’re going to go and look for additional evidence that this is the person they are really looking for.”
The mission of InfraGard’s 78 chapters across the country is to promote ongoing and timely communication between its 80,000 members and the FBI concerning threats and vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure. InfraGard members are provided with information to assist them in protecting 16 critical infrastructure assets, which include food and agriculture, chemical, commercial facilities, communications, dams, energy, financial services, information technology, and transportation systems.
FBICCAAA members who want information about InfraGard membership, which is free of charge, can contact FBI Special Agent Paul Szawranskyj at pmszawranskyj@fbi.gov or visit https://www.infragardnational.org/become-a-member.
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