The Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide has released a statement following confusion last week about the use of facial recognition technology through the city’s CCTV.
Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said the city had an existing network of CCTV cameras known as the City Safe Network, which was managed through a partnership between South Australia Police and the City of Adelaide.
“The cameras, backend recording hardware and video management of the City Safe system have reached end of life and need to be replaced for public safety,” Ms Verschoor said.
“Through August to October 2021, the City of Adelaide conducted an open tender for a suitable supplier for the replacement of the City Safe CCTV network,” she said.
“At its meeting of 9 November 2021, Council resolved to not support the use of facial recognition technology in the updated City Safe Network.”
Ms Verschoor said as per this resolution, the final purchase had specifically excluded the necessary backend hardware or software licences required to enable facial recognition across the City Safe Network.
“Therefore, facial recognition technology will not be functional to users of the City Safe Network,” she said.
Ms Verschoor said that to reiterate this position, a Special Council meeting was also held on Tuesday 21 June which resolved that Council noted the City of Adelaide had neither procured nor purchased the necessary backend hardware or software licences required to enable facial recognition across the City Safe CCTV Network, in accordance with the Council decision of 9 November 2021 and would not fund, procure nor purchase the necessary backend hardware or software.
“We will continue to work closely with SA Police to keep our city and its residents, workers and visitors safe,” Ms Verschoor said.
