Here is letter, sent to Rep Don Armes by a constituent regarding HB 3209;
Mr. Armes,
I would like to take (NOT ASK) a little bit of your time regarding HB 3209. I as a citizen of these United States of America and my beloved state of Oklahoma hereby assert my view regarding HB 3209. I, Mr. Armes have been hitting the snooze button regarding our Federal, State and Local Governments, but as of about 4 months ago I threw out my alarm clock. For now I am awake and informed!
With everything going on in American Politics, how can you explain authoring or even supporting HB 3209. This bill is completely unconstitutional, HB 3209 is an infringement on Amendment 1, Amendment 4 and Amendment 10 of the United States Bill of Rights. You , Sir are trying to slip this bill through without your own district knowledge, but don’t worry if this bill isn’t removed from the floor you will and your constituents will be able to see the bill in the Lawton Constitution for I will personally buy an ad for the Sunday paper and high-light key points of your bill.
Mr. Armes your have been voted into office to PROTECT our freedoms NOT INFRINGE upon them.
I hereby request a response to this email by the end of the business day Thursday 2-4-2010. I am Demanding NOT requesting your response, for if your response is not received by 2-4-2010 you will be able to read my response in Sundays edition of the Lawton Constitution.
Mr. Armes I hate to be so forceful with my words, but quite frankly Sir HB 3209 pisses me off!
One more thing Mr. Armes, I would like you to know that I and many others in SW Oklahoma are praying for all of our legislators, to vote on your God given principles for the good of the people of Oklahoma!
Good Day
Colin Henderson
(personal info removed)
http://biometrics.org/bc2008/presentations/118.pdf
***
“Biometric technologies have extremely serious implications for human rights in general, and privacy in particular. Their uses to date have been to enable powerful organizations to exercise social control over people, and the designs have been highly insensitive to the interests of the individuals they’re imposed upon.”
***
HOUSE BILL 3209 By: Armes
An Act relating to driver licenses; amending 47> O.S. 2001, Section <2-110>, as< last >amended by Section <1>, Chapter <199>, O.S.L. 20<05> (<47> O.S. Supp. 2009, Section <2-110>), which relates to the release of records by the Department of Public Safety; directing the Department of Public Safety to establish procedures for access to computerized images; prohibiting use of images by certain persons; providing penalty; and providing an effective date.
“We’re starting the process of biometrifying a good proportion of the world population“
Déjà vu?
No. HB 3209- is a carbon copy of SB 483 (which is still alive in the legislature this session)
SB 483 states
“The Commissioner of Public Safety is authorized to establish procedures and enter into agreements with any other law enforcement agency of this state or political subdivision of this state for the purpose of providing direct electronic access to the photograph or image in computerized format of any person who has been issued a driver license or identification card by the Department of Public Safety.”
Last session many Oklahomans went out of their way to meet with, email, and call their Representatives and makes sure that they understood what this bill would do. Our legislators were given more than just opinions-we gave them facts to back them up. Hours were spent by many researching government projects, searching for documents, schematics and more to prove what was behind this innocuous sounding bill. Our representatives, thankfully, did listen to us and the tide turned against SB 483. It was not presented to the floor for a hearing likely because the necessary support for the bill was lacking and a failed vote would have taken it out of play for the next two years.
The people of this state and many of the members of the House of Representatives are to be commended because as soon as they began to balk at SB 483 the OK County Sheriff tried to intervene.
Some members of the OK House of Representatives received the below email from Sheriff Whetsel advising them that the concern of Oklahoma residents about SB 483 were not legitimate. Without providing any evidence for his claims but instead relying on the considerable clout of his position, he negated every one of our well founded assertions.
Opponents of SB 483 said;
- SB 483 the “Direct Access” bill will make the Department of Public Safety the designated the Broker for your Biometric Data (digital photo)
- Your biometric data is a necessary component needed by Oklahoma’s new Fusion Center in order to achieve its goal of “seamless” data sharing between states, the federal government and profit seeking private corporations that have been driving this legislation. These companies are partnered with our government in this scheme that build fortunes at our expense.
- Innocent Americans risk being enrolled in a system that makes real-time surveillance a reality
(Real Time Surveillance. This means simply that as events occur (real time) and progress you can be identified remotely and your whereabouts, transactions, and activities can be watched or recorded. How SB 483 would make this possible is by biometrics, specifically your facial biometric)
Sheriff Whetsel claimed;
The digitized photo is not biometric data”
Biometric means a measurement of the body (also unique characteristics like your gait and signature) A fingerprint is a well known biometric. Face recognition technology has some unique characteristics that make it most desirable for government to utilize.
The statement below made in a primer on biometrics by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center –A program of the National Institute of Justice, illustrates why facial biometric collection is such an attractive option to government;
“A clear advantage of face recognition technology is that images can be captured without physical contact; devices could become valuable surveillance tools.” (2007)
We know that Oklahoma has collected Face, Fingerprint scans and signature biometrics since 2003.
Viisage Recieves $12 Million Award from Oklahoma
FEBRUARY 19, 2003–Viisage Technology Inc. (Littleton, MA; www.viisage.com) has been chosen to fulfill the new digital driver’s license contract by the state of Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety. http://tinyurl.com/ViisageOKla
Biometric Drivers Licenses Make Debut in Oklahoma
April 20, 2004
SAGEM Morpho, Inc. a proven provider of mission-critical biometric systems and services, announced the successful deployment of biometric technology solutions for the Oklahoma Department Public Safety (DPS) in conjunction with Viisage, a provider of advanced technology identity solutions. SAGEM Morpho will combine its finger imaging recognition technology with Viisage’s facial recognition technology to create accurate biometric records of the state’s approximately four million licensed drivers.
The Bottom Line?
In a strictly technical sense, our digital photos are considered a biometric sample until processed by software such as Viisage’s faceEXPLORER, which is what the Oklahoma DMV uses. Once it has been processed by the software it becomes what is now referred to by technicians as biometric data.
The only ones who would use such precise terminology are generally the people dealing with the technical aspects of biometrics. Our lawmakers are not technicians and would more than likely take Sheriff Whetsel’s statement to mean that the picture is only a picture and would not be utilized as a biometric. That assumption is entirely wrong! The DMV photos are taken, processed in a manner intended to be used as a biometric to enable facial recognition capability
- DHS has doled out millions on surveillance cameras, transforming city streets and parks into places under constant observation and
- Oklahoma uses Livescan stations and Motorola mobile biometric scanners
- The FBI is compiling a massive biometric database.
2007-FBI Seeks to Build Massive Identification System. The Federal Bureau of Investigation awarded a $1B, 10-year contract to design, develop, document, integrate, test, and deploy the Next Generation Identification (NGI) System to Lockheed Martin. This new database will expand on the current fingerprint-based system; the FBI will increase its collection and storage not only fingerprints but also iris scans, palm prints and facial images.
- The FBI is also in talks with the U.K. police to establish a unified database for the tracking of this biometric information.
The UK has said that the new NGI System could easily be integrated with the U.K.’s current Ident1 database
Lockheed get $1 Billion FBI Biometrics Contract
The FBI is expanding its biometric identification systems for criminal, civil, and national security reasons. http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206503290
- NLETs-the system utilized by law enforcement for over 40 years to share criminal information is working with AAMVA and state DMV;s to share driver’s license photos across jurisdictions.
- Several driver’s license image sharing applications have been successfully piloted.
A collaboration between AAMVA and NLETS utilized common data standards to demonstrate increased efficiencies and effectiveness of law enforcement driver-related inquiries across jurisdictions (IACP, 2007) The literature review also highlighted the role of private industry working with local law enforcement agencies to share drivers license information across jurisdiction lines. For example, Digimarc Corporation recently announced a cooperative venture involving the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and six state motor vehicle issuers to share information in order to reduce fraud (Digimarc, 2007).http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/drivers-license.pdf
While law enforcement has long had the capability to share criminal justice information via the NLETS system, important expansion and alterations in information sharing as well as advancements in technology has taken place since 9 11 that require a serious examination of this process
In the past fingerprints and in recent years DNA was justifiably collected on criminal suspects upon probable cause or in the case of DNA, conviction. Also, such biometrics were collected and checked on a few other categories of individuals for justifiable reasons of security such as background checks or security clearances.
Now government has the capability and intent to collect, share and retain this and even more intrusive information on the population at large. Where do we draw the line?
AISLE II: Accelerated Information Sharing for Law Enforcement
This project provides access to INTERPOL Person, Travel Document and Vehicle records in Lyon France. This access is available to all law enforcement personnel nationwide utilizing the NLETS network.
[. . .]. Currently the United States provides access to its NCIC Vehicle records for all participating INTERPOL nations.
Since last session we have more and more direct evidence that concerns about SB 483 (and now, HB 3209) are entirely valid.
The Memorandums that Sheriff Whetsel assured us were only creating agreements within state law enforcement agencies have been obtained and he is wrong. There is one, for example, between OK DPS and Germany for the direct exchange of driver’s license data.
In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver’s license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/12/3374808-fbi-delves-into-dmv-photos-in-search-for-fugitives
The inability of our representatives and the people of this state to get a straight answer to our questions is troubling to say the least. but the 3 inch thick stack of these MOU’s that are not a part of the public record and that were not known about or approved by our elected representatives, speaks volumes.
For more insight into the perils of widespread biometric ID technology, in particular facial recognition, read;
Your Face Is Not a Bar Code:
Arguments Against Automatic Face Recognition in Public Places
Understand THESE 2 pieceS of legislation are just one small aspect of the overarching plan to combine multiple sources of information about citizens in order to monitor them and analyze their “transactional footprint” for the purpose of preempting crime or terrorism. If you saw the movie Minority Report, then you get the picture and if you read the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) Strategic Report you can see just how valuable the “Fusion” concept is.
NextGen ID
SB 483 reads;
Any record required to be maintained by the Department may be released to any other entity free of charge when the release of the record would be for the benefit of the public, as determined by the Commissioner or a designee of the Commissioner.
“Direct Electronic Access” of OUR most personal information?
Facial Recognition Technology is being used as a system to track monitor and control people.
Tell Them NO!!
Let your Representatives know that we SB 483 and HB 3209 is unacceptable legislation.
We are not going to allow Oklahoma to become a surveillance state.
Better yet, give them some FACE time! Visit YOUR State Capitol often and let your reps know where you stand.
Senate Contact Information: Senate Directory
House of Representatives Contact Information: Representatives Directory
Oklahoma Capitol Investments 