The

US Customs and Border Protection

(CBP) is looking for a new

facial recognition system

to implement at

land border crossings

. With this system, the country wants to identify all individuals entering the country via vehicles. Recently, CBP's Office of Field Operations Biometric Program Office issued a Request for Information, seeking vendors who can provide the technology to capture quality facial images of people inside cars at

inbound land ports

of entry.

The intention is to compare these images in real-time with the

Traveller Verification System

, an existing facial recognition system used by the

Department of Homeland Security

(DHS) at various entry points, such as airports and pedestrian border crossings.The CBF is planning to layer new facial-recognition technology on top of its existing “vehicle package” checks, which already record license plate data, scene photos, and traveller biometrics. In the current system, vehicles first enter a Pre-Primary Zone (PPZ), where live photos are matched against any identities already in government databases. Next, they proceed to the Primary Zone, where the system captures and analyses images of anyone who wasn’t biometrically confirmed in the earlier stage.

CBP says that the new facial recognition at

vehicle crossings

will fulfil its congressional mandate to

biometrically record

all foreign nationals entering and exiting the US and to prevent imposters from using others’ travel documents.

A 2022 DHS postmortem of the Anzalduas test, obtained by the EFF, found that while stated objectives were met, photos were only captured 76% of the time and 81% were usable in the existing system. These shortfalls were attributed to human behaviour, multiple passenger rows and environmental obstacles. However, critics warn that expanding real-time facial recognition to moving vehicles raises serious

privacy concerns

, as it could track not just vehicle movements but also identify occupants. Responding to this, the new RFI proposes augmenting current checks to capture images of 100% of vehicle passengers, with vendors invited to submit proposals by May 30.