Las Vegas Police Union Pushes Back Against NFL’s Biometric Credentialing Plan

The National Football League’s plans to implement a face-based credentialing system appear to have rankled the leadership of a major police union. In a video distributed to Las Vegas police this month, Steve Grammas, the President of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, warned that the NFL’s new system will “take your biometric data” and share it with third parties, adding that it could end up in the possession of “people who are anti-cop that support a different agenda than what law and order supports.”

The warning represents one of the more notable ironies of the biometrics space. For years, police organizations have been leading proponents of the use of facial recognition technology, hailing it as a valuable tool in police investigations and in automatically flagging persons of interest. That has often put police agencies at odds with privacy advocates, who warn of the dangers of letting police collect data of individuals who have not committed any crimes.

Now that such biometric data collection is poised to be applied to cops working security at NFL games, the LVPPA, at least, appears to be raising some red flags.

The NFL’s plans for nationwide deployments of biometric credentialing came to light just a couple of weeks ago. Through a partnership with technology vendor Wicket, the league had first experimented with a face-scanning “Express Access” system for fans in 2020, applying the tech in collaboration with the Cleveland Browns. A six-stadium pilot further extended the NFL’s use of this technology last year.

Now, the NFL plans to use facial recognition not only for fan entry, but to secure access to certain parts of stadiums, such as locker rooms and the press box. Those who are permitted to access these areas will need to have their faces registered in the biometric security system, enabling them to easily gain entry to restricted areas.

The head of the LVPPA may have a problem with that, but the issue hasn’t yet come to a head. The biometric deployments are not happening all at once, and for now, Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium is sticking with conventional security credentialing. Cops will still be able to work Raiders home games without needing to register their biometrics—for now, at least.

Source: TMZ

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August 13, 2024 – by Alex Perala