Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was quoted in a story by Ideastream’s Matthew Richman, titled “City official says Cleveland police have facial recognition tech. How it’s being used is unclear.” Professor Witmer-Rich stated, “My first question is, ‘Do they have a written policy governing their use of facial recognition? And if so, can the citizens see it?’” He noted that the privacy risks of facial recognition need to be considered: “Fundamentally, even if your system works extremely well, we may just decide we don’t want you to use it because it’s too powerful of a tool, it invades into our privacy too much.”
CSU Law Faculty
Engaged Excellence
CSU Law Faculty 
Dear Professor Witmer-Rich: I couldn’t agree more, though I would word your question somewhat differently. What reasons can you provide for not sharing what is a public document? What exception do you claim under the Freedom of Information Act for not sharing it? And if the police won’t share it, a lawsuit should be brought to compel its production and I am sure there is a case out there where someone’s privacy was invaded for its use.