Jackson County Board of Directors approved a data-access agreement June 9 allowing a biometric vendor to access the county’s public booking photographs and provide the county with two free user licenses.

A representative of the sheriff’s office described the vendor — referred to in the discussion as Amber Biometrics (the vendor name was mentioned with inconsistent spellings in the packet) — which operates facial-recognition tools that compare unknown photos against a large database. The sheriff’s office representative said the vendor’s database contained “43,000,000 photographs” and that the county had tested the system with local cases. The representative said the tool produced matches at “99.9%” in test cases but emphasized that “that’s obviously not something you can make an arrest on, but it’s something that gives you a lead.”

The vendor’s access to Jackson County mugshots would require a one-time integration fee charged through the county’s jail management system; the sheriff’s office said the integration fee would be roughly $8,800. In return, the county would receive two free licenses to use the service. The sheriff’s office said the only information provided to the vendor would be public booking photographs and names.

A board member raised concerns about HIPAA and privacy; the sheriff’s office responded that the photographs and booking information are public records and that the vendor would receive only that public information. The board then moved and approved a motion to authorize the county to enter a data-access and terms-of-use agreement with the vendor; the chair declared the motion carried by voice vote.

Board members did not approve additional paid modules that the vendor offers (for example, cameras or live-scanning products); the motion covered only the data-access agreement as presented.

The sheriff’s office said the tool is intended to generate investigative leads for unknown suspects and to share those leads with other agencies as appropriate.