{"id":6196,"date":"2026-06-17T21:11:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/news\/7710405\/a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T08:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:31:03","slug":"a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6196\/a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"A city’s push for facial recognition on public buses ignites debate over security and privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, are preparing to equip cameras on some public buses with facial recognition<\/a> software capable of identifying passengers who appear on a list of banned riders or missing persons.<\/p>\n

Supporters and opponents alike view the effort as a major litmus test for tapping the AI-powered software on a U.S. public transportation system<\/a>, positioning Kansas City as the latest epicenter of a fierce debate over whether the safety benefits of artificial intelligence are worth the privacy costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of running face recognition on a camera that is pointed on live spaces in public is a line that until recently has never really been crossed in the last 25 years,\u201d said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the Project on Speech, Privacy and Technology at the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/a><\/p>\n

The state of Missouri declined to help fund the project as expected due to concerns with the facial recognition component. Still, the city is pushing ahead with local and federal money, said Tyler Means, chief mobility and strategy officer at the Kansas City Transportation Authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivacy is always a tricky thing,\u201d Means said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always had cameras on our buses. It\u2019s just new technology. I think in time it\u2019ll smooth over and people will realize, \u2018Well, it didn\u2019t really feel any different.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameras that recognize a face<\/p>\n

SafeSpace Global, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based company partnering with Kansas City to run the cameras, started using live facial recognition years ago to alert nursing homes<\/a> when residents left the building, then brought the technology to correctional institutions and schools. Kansas City\u2019s buses represent the company\u2019s inaugural venture in transportation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Images captured by cameras aboard the buses would immediately be checked against any active alerts, generated when a missing person, banned rider or someone on a law enforcement watch list designated by the transportation authority is identified.<\/p>\n

If no match or safety issue is detected, the facial data won’t be retained. After the buses return to the depot, the transportation authority would archive the regular video footage on a local server for up to five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not sitting there filming all the time,\u201d SafeSpace Global CEO Scott Boruff said. \u201cIt just captures the face and goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Stanley with the ACLU warned that it’s nearly impossible to limit the scope of a surveillance project when artificial intelligence is involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be used for a very narrow watch list today, but there are very good reasons to think it\u2019ll expand over time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Backers of the effort point out that security cameras are already found nearly everywhere \u2014 even on Kansas City’s buses \u2014 and some law enforcement agencies have used facial recognition software to identify suspects spotted on video.<\/p>\n

Cameras with other types of AI-powered software have been installed on public buses and school buses in other cities to read the license plates of nearby vehicles and ticket the ones spotted committing infractions such as illegally parking in a bus lane. Privacy advocates are concerned about those devices as well, but they’re particularly alarmed by cameras that could actively record faces even when no crime is committed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity residents should not be guinea pigs for transit systems to test Silicon Valley\u2019s latest unproven, biased surveillance tech,\u201d said Will Owen, communications director for the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.<\/p>\n

Lessons from elsewhere<\/p>\n

Shortly after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks<\/a>, police in Tampa, Florida, used facial recognition cameras in the Ybor City neighborhood to search for crime suspects, but there was immediate opposition and the program was soon abandoned, Stanley said.<\/p>\n

More recently, New Orleans police<\/a> secretly relied on facial recognition surveillance cameras run by a private company despite a city ordinance prohibiting the technology, The Washington Post reported<\/a> last year. Although the program was believed to have been paused, Stanley wrote a report for the ACLU last month that found it was still operating in some capacity, citing emails an activist obtained through an open records request.<\/p>\n

Detroit<\/a> partnered with some gas stations and liquor stores in 2016 to install high-definition cameras that relayed live feeds of violent crimes directly to the police department. But after a New York Times investigation<\/a> found footage was paired with facial recognition software to make arrests, some of the accused filed successful lawsuits claiming they were wrongly targeted due to faulty technology that misidentified Black suspects.<\/p>\n

James Craig, the police chief at the time, said officials felt the backlash and changed the rules over how facial recognition could be used without scrapping the program entirely. But he still advocates for the technology, provided it\u2019s used correctly, and says it would be a shame for cities to abandon one of their best tools for securing the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the police department or the city doesn\u2019t have the insights to build in strong policies, transparent policies and accountability, the knee jerk reaction is, \u2018Well, let\u2019s just ban it,\u2019\u201d Craig said.<\/p>\n

KC delays rollout, eyes \u2018bigger\u2019 plan<\/p>\n

The cameras<\/a> were expected to be installed on Kansas City’s buses this spring, but organizers halted the effort just before launch, derailing hopes that they <\/a> would be up and running in time for the World Cup<\/a> matches the city began hosting<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

The delay was partly technical \u2014 a need to upgrade Wi-Fi routers to support both the cameras and a new fare collection system on the buses \u2014 and partly financial due to state government funding falling through, illustrating the headwinds U.S. cities often encounter when seeking to deploy facial recognition.<\/p>\n

Despite the delays, Means said he’s confident the program will launch this year and \u201ca little bit bigger\u201d than initially planned, with potentially as many as 30 buses instead of the nine that had been planned under the pilot.<\/p>\n

Boruff, the SafeSpace Global CEO, said the company is ready to start installing the Kansas City cameras as soon as the money comes through, although it’ll likely take three to four months to configure the software for the city’s specific needs.<\/p>\n

Ryana Parks-Shaw, a City Council member serving as mayor pro tem, said she’s not disappointed that the rollout has been delayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they need to take their time and do it right,\u201d Parks-Shaw said. \u201cI believe that any use of this kind of technology must be approached carefully, transparently and with clear guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for securing buses during the World Cup without the facial recognition cameras, Means said the reconfigured plan includes up to 40 more officers patrolling stops and transit centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re kind of going old school to address what we hoped the technology would do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n \"|\"
A bus waits for passengers at a transit center Friday, June 5, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"|\"
Buses wait for passengers at a transit center Friday, June 5, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo\/Charlie Riedel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, are preparing to equip cameras on some public buses with facial recognition software capable of identifying passengers who appear on a list of banned riders or missing persons. Supporters and opponents alike view the effort as a major litmus test for tapping the AI-powered software on a U.S. public transportation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":6197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"2f5ab40f-ebdb-46bb-9d64-c305ed485b87","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"Jeff Mcmurray","published":"2026-06-17 21:11:57","updated":"2026-06-18 08:20:57","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[638,1303,1318,1431,1297,1432],"tags":[],"region":[1301],"class_list":["post-6196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-international","category-science","category-soccer","category-sports","category-world-cup","region-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6196\/a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A city’s push for facial recognition on public buses ignites debate over security and privacy","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6196\/a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6196\/a-citys-push-for-facial-recognition-on-public-buses-ignites-debate-over-security-and-privacy\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-265711345c94a48e876fa49b996d49b309024a52f3df9506c6ddce6d517edcd0.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-265711345c94a48e876fa49b996d49b309024a52f3df9506c6ddce6d517edcd0.jpg"},"articleSection":"business","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNwheels","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-06-18T04:11:57Z","datePublished":"2026-06-18T04:11:57Z","dateModified":"2026-06-18T15:31:03Z"},"rendered":"