Police Department’s Partnership with Biometrica Over Data Privacy Concerns

The Belize Police Department has placed a temporary hold on a proposed partnership with Biometrica, a company specializing in facial recognition software, due to the concerns over data privacy. The project, initially seen as a solution for more efficient tracking and identification of suspects, would have required sharing the country’s entire criminal database, including criminal records and fingerprint data, with the third-party company. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams elaborated on the matter still being tabled as Biometrica works on improving the software to ensure that the data remains in control of local authorities.  

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Belize: “That agreement is currently on hold. There is a need for us to see how we can work it out. Perhaps if it is that they can develop a software and then we just get that software without the exchanging of data where we can keep our data in house then we may be able to go wit that. But even the company itself had also called to say that they could not go through with the agreement because of some issue with the software that they had developed so they’re looking to see if they can develop one that the countries because not just Belize but there are many Caribbean countries that had signed on to it but we have all decided that we’re not going through with it because of the issue with the software but we’re hoping that when the new one comes that it will be one that we can use in house without having to share data with any outside entity particularly for the facial recognition because that would require that we would have to use the database of persons who have been convicted of crime. So we’d rather house that in house as opposed to share that abroad with anyone.”

Reporter: And in event the program cannot work unless you share the data what happens then ? 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Belize: “Then we look at other sources because there are other sources out there that do provide the software without us having to share the data.”

The halt in collaboration reflects a growing caution among governments regarding the handling and sharing of personal data in an increasingly digital world.