{"id":16844,"date":"2026-04-16T09:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=16844"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:33:04","slug":"edmonton-police-turned-body-cameras-into-facial-recognition-surveillance-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/edmonton-police-turned-body-cameras-into-facial-recognition-surveillance-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Police Turned Body Cameras Into Facial Recognition Surveillance Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Axon is the other company along with Flock<\/a> in putting out similar based AI cameras to violate the rights of citizens. It’s the mark of the beast system being built all around us bit by bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/edmonton-police-bod<\/a>y<\/a>-cameras-facial-recognition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
The same technology sold to hold police accountable now scans 7,000 faces a day without asking anyone’s permission.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Compact<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Ken Macon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of Edmonton, Alberta, police officers spent December 2025<\/a> patrolling with body cameras that silently scanned every face within four meters, comparing captures against a watchlist of roughly 7,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cameras, manufactured by Axon Enterprise and powered by facial recognition from Corsight AI, ran automatically whenever an officer pressed record. No one being scanned was asked or told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body cameras were sold to the public as accountability tools that watch police on behalf of citizens. Edmonton\u2019s pilot inverts that promise. The same cameras now watch citizens on behalf of police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EPS\u2019s own privacy assessment acknowledges this, stating that \u201cthe continuous scanning of faces for comparison against a watchlist constitutes proactive surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly obtained documents reveal that the privacy impact assessment EPS submitted to Alberta\u2019s privacy watchdog contains troubling language around data sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assessment says data shared with Axon will be anonymized \u201cwhenever possible,\u201d but adds that \u201cdata required to aid in assessing the success or failures associated with the technology will be shared when \/ if required.\u201d Gideon Christian, an associate professor of AI and law at the University of Calgary, called that phrasing dangerously vague. \u201c\u2018Whenever possible\u2019 is a very loose and ambiguous phrase,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate Robertson, a senior research associate with the University of Toronto\u2019s Citizen Lab, called this \u201clikely the most high risk algorithmic surveillance program that I have observed to date in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A system outage caused by a \u201ccritical fault\u201d prevented matches for seven days, and EPS requested a three-week extension to collect enough data for a potential second phase involving real-time officer notifications. Whether that extension was approved remains unknown. EPS refused to answer questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Axon is the other company along with Flock in putting out similar based AI cameras to violate the rights of citizens. It’s the mark of the beast system being built all around us bit by bit. https:\/\/reclaimthenet.org\/edmonton-police-body-cameras-facial-recognition The same technology sold to hold police accountable now scans 7,000 faces a day without asking anyone’s permission. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16845,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions\/16845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}