Feds Expand AI-Powered Surveillance with DHS AI Contracts
Leaked Documents Reveal Extensive Investment in AI Technologies for Predictive Policing and Surveillance
A cache of leaked documents from the US Department of Homeland Security has shed light on the agency’s extensive investments in artificial intelligence technologies for predictive policing, airport surveillance, and biometric data collection.
Predictive Policing Technologies
The records, obtained through a transparency nonprofit, reveal a vast array of AI-driven projects aimed at enhancing national security, but also raise concerns about the potential for expanded federal surveillance and erosion of civil liberties.
One of the projects involves an AI platform designed to analyze emergency call data nationwide and forecast patterns of criminal activity. The platform, which was awarded three contracts totaling $524,000, would combine a centralized data lake with AI analytics to collect and anonymize emergency call and incident data from public safety answering points across the United States.
Civil liberties advocates have long raised concerns about predictive policing technologies, arguing that algorithms can lend a sense of objectivity to policing strategies that may reproduce existing biases. Several large police departments have abandoned predictive policing programs in recent years due to concerns about their effectiveness and potential for abuse.
Airport Surveillance
Other contracts described in the leaked dataset focus on expanding automated surveillance capabilities in airports. Four projects, totaling approximately $699,000, involve technologies designed to monitor passengers approaching Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
These systems rely on AI to analyze live airport camera feeds and identify individuals based on physical characteristics. A proposed system, developed by the company Intellisense, is designed to detect and track people within surveillance footage while cataloging visual attributes such as clothing, accessories, and footwear.
Biometric Data Collection
A third category of projects focuses on mobile biometric systems that would allow federal agents to collect identifying data using smartphones. Several contracts issued since the beginning of the Trump administration funded tools intended to enable field agents to capture fingerprints, iris scans, and facial images using portable devices.
The role of biometric data collection by agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection has drawn scrutiny in recent years, particularly during enforcement operations in large cities.
“It very much feels like sometimes these people are watching dystopian science fiction movies and thinking, ‘Oh, that looks good,'” said Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Surveillance Oversight Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “That’s not the lesson from dystopian science fiction. They’re taking the wrong lesson from it.”
Program Funding
The program operates under the Small Business Innovation Research initiative, created by Congress in 1982 and reauthorized in 2022. The program is intended to support small businesses developing technologies with potential commercial applications.
Under the structure of the program, contracts typically begin as proof-of-concept grants worth between $100,000 and $175,000 before progressing to larger prototype awards that can exceed $1 million.
Conclusion
The leaked records arrive amid renewed attention to the department’s surveillance programs following a $165 billion funding increase approved in a recent federal spending bill. Civil liberties advocates say the records illustrate the scale of federal investment in emerging monitoring technologies.
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