Black eye for Big Brother in Tampa.

For two years pedestrians in the Ybor City entertainment district of Tampa, Florida, have been under the watchful eye of Big Brother. Police surveillance cameras worked in concert with face-recognition software to scan passersby and compare them to a database of known criminals and missing persons. The results? According to an August 21st Reuters story, the Tampa police released this statement: "While the software proved reliable in testing, there have been no positive identifications or arrests attributed to the software."

Consequently, "the department had decided not to renew its annual agreement with Identix Inc. on using the company's Facial Recognition Software," Reuters reported. "Police spokesman Bob Guidara said the decision to end the test program--which was paid for by the company--was based on the fact it had not produced results, not on the privacy issues. He declined to comment on whether the lack of results was the fault of the software or the database used."

Civil rights groups applauded the decision. Darlene Williams, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union's Tampa branch, said, "Before, every person who walked down the street was subjected to an electronic police line-up without their consent." The applause may be somewhat premature, however, since it was only the software portion of the program that was terminated. The Reuters story ends on this troubling note: "The surveillance cameras in Ybor City, in place since 1997, will remain."