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AI-Assisted Facial Recognition for Arson Investigations

Accountable
Fire Department (FDNY)
Functional Modes
Deciding (Analytical AI)
Human decides
Purpose
Enforcement
Input Dataset
Biometric Identifiable data
Algorithm or Model
Biometric Recognition
Output Dataset
A recommendation or prediction Identifiable data

This system is used by the New York City Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Investigations to help identify individuals in arson and criminal fire cases. It compares uploaded images or video frames against a database of lawfully held images to generate a list of possible matches. Any matches are treated only as investigative leads — Fire Department personnel must conduct additional investigation before any identification is acted upon, and a match alone is never treated as a confirmed identification.

Sources for this disclosure

This disclosure was drafted with AI assistance.

Schema: ai@2026-05-06-beta