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Oakland International Airport is taking a first step toward being able to scan crowds for terrorists with the installation of face-scanning technology.

Alameda County, California, where Oakland is located, completed the implementation of a face-scanning system three months ago in the Oakland city jail. When a suspect is arrested, his face is scanned during booking and the digital image is stored in a central database located at Oakland Police Department headquarters, according to Oakland police Sergeant Mark Schmid, who is in charge of the program.

Now the police department is installing a T1 line to the airport so a scanner located there can connect to the database of photos from the jail, he said.

While the database now contains only information from the city jail, later phases of the program call for all those arrested in Alameda County to be scanned and stored in the database. "We are entertaining and exploring options for the future as to which [other] databases" Oakland could access, Schmid said.

It is possible that Oakland could eventually try to access an FBI list of terrorists, Schmid said. But he acknowledged that his and other agencies must agree on a standard format for storing the pictures before that can happen.

"There would have to be some talking, definitely," he said.

The move follows last month's terrorist strikes in the United States, which prompted Oakland officials to expand the face-scanning technology to the airport.

Growing Resource

The database, now less than a gigabyte in size, would be able to store images for five years at a rate of 100 bookings per day without the need to add more storage space, Schmid said. Few scans from the airport would be added to the database. Rather, faces scanned there would be compared to files already stored.

Oakland is using face-scanning technology from Imagis Technologies. Orion Scientific Systems helped develop the technology.

The installation at Oakland International is part of a $2.65 million contract with the Alameda County Sheriff's Department to install Imagis's ID-2000 and Computerized Arrest and Booking System technology, according to a statement from Imagis. The contract was funded by a 3-year-old grant, Schmid said.

Imagis's ID-2000 uses more than 200 facial descriptors, generated from its sophisticated image analysis algorithms, to capture and compare an individual's face against a database, quickly identifying individuals who might pose a potential threat.

Officials declined to give details on how the scanner at the airport would be used once it's in place.

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