ELDRIDGE, Iowa — The Eldridge Police Department is adopting facial recognition technology, which it says will help in future investigations.
The department is now using Clearview AI, a program that searches a huge database of more than 40 billion public images, using algorithms to find matches with an image submitted by law enforcement.
Eldridge police officer Garrett Jahns said the department considered the program after an incident in Dec. 2023, where a man from out of state used a fake ID at a local bank. "It had his real image on the ID, but all the information that was on the ID was fake," he explained.
Officer Jahns said Thomas Edward Payne successfully withdrew money from First Trust and Savings Bank. Staff later notified police when they discovered the fraudulent act. Jahns said he submitted the ID photo to the FBI, which used Clearview AI to identify Payne. "I discovered that person absconded from jail in Kentucky, and he came up here to Eldridge to commit his crime," Jahns said. "He was picked up and arrested in Minnesota on our warrant."
After that successful investigation, Jahns said the department used a trial run of Clearview which helped them in shoplifting cases. Now the department has purchased a subscription for the program, which costs around $3,500 per year. First Trust and Savings donated enough money to cover the first year.
"When we outsource it, it could be a few days, it could be a few weeks — but here for us, when we submit it, we can have it immediately," Jahns said.
The bank staff told News 8 the donation wasn't just about protecting their business, but also others in the area from other crimes like shoplifting.
"The other nice thing too is, we have agreements with surrounding agencies throughout the Quad Cities. If they have a serious crime they're looking at, we're gonna be more than happy to help them," Jahns said.
Jahns said he wanted to reassure the community over privacy concerns, saying the program does not run 24/7 on live cameras; he said it's only used as needed when the department submits each individual image to be scanned.
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