We need your help to find out more about the FBI’s face recognition database. As you may know, the FBI wants to exempt its face recognition and fingerprint database from critical provisions in the Privacy Act, shrouding the database in secrecy. Because the database is built from mugshot photos, we suspect that the FBI database includes a large number of activists arrested in the course of civil disobedience. We need your help to figure out if this is indeed happening.

We are looking for people:
- Who were arrested in the last 5 years;
- In California (especially San Diego County), Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Texas, or Virginia;
- For non-violent conduct at a protest or other rally (e.g. blocking an entrance, refusing to obey an officer's order); and
- Who were never charged (or had charges dropped or dismissed) after the arrest

Once we identify candidates, we will use the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act to figure out if they are in their state and/or the FBI's face recognition database. We would use this information either in our report on state and local law enforcement agency’s use of facial recognition technology or in a follow-up to the report.

We will keep your information confidential, keep it as securely as possible, and will not use it for any other purpose. We will also not use your name without your permission.

If you fit this description, and want to help, please fill out this Google Form or if you prefer a different method, email the same information to katie.evans@georgetown.edu.