After the Tasers, the government of Buenos Aires crossed the Nation for facial recognition cameras in Rosario

Following the threat of Lionel Messi in Rosario, the government reached an agreement with the governor of Santa Fe, Omar Perotti, the installation of 600 facial recognition surveillance cameras in the city ravaged by drug-related violence. It is a similar mechanism that was suspended and declared unconstitutional in the city of Buenos Aires by the justice of Buenos Aires, after a collective amparo appeal filed at the end of 2020.

After this announcement, the government of Buenos Aires questioned the “double standard” of national officials. “We have been fighting for years and defending the use of the facial recognition system: in the City, it has allowed us to arrest nearly 1,700 criminals, including murderers and rapists. These are years of struggle against Kirchnerism, which has done everything to ban it,” he said. Marcelo D´AlessandroMinister of Security on leave after leaking cats, via social media.

“With partisan failures and ridiculous excuses for the podium managed to suspend the use of this toolkey element of our Integral Public Security System, with which we have obtained the best rates in the last 28 years,” he explained.

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Finally, he underlined “now that Rosario ignites the war on drugs, Kirchnerism itself uses facial recognition as a magic solution to reverse a tragedy that has never interested them. They hate the City and improvise for others. The real danger is them.”

The action to stop the Horacio Rodríguez Larreta administration’s Fugitive Facial Recognition System (SRFP), which had worked in April 2019 to search for people with an arrest warrant, was presented by the Argentinian Observatory of the computer law (ODIA) and was accompanied by the Civil Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ), Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and the Vía Libre Foundation, among other organizations.

Roberto Gallardo, in charge of the Court of First Instance for Administrative and Tax Litigation No. 2, described as a “Kirchnerist judge” by the ranks of JxC- decided to suspend its use after comparing the information provided by the two organizations whose the SRFP is fed: the database of the Co.Na.RC (National System for Concertation of Rebellions and Captures) which had between 35,000 and 40,000 records and more than 9 million queries that have been made from the city to the National Registry of Persons (ReNaPer).

In the judgment, the magistrate pointed out that data was requested from public figures such as Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Kirchner and other political figures from the ruling party and the opposition such as Patricia Bullrich, Myriam Bregman; Juan Grabois and Estela De Carlotto and Hebe de Bonafini. Also of businessmen like Marcos Galperín and Hugo Sigman, among others.

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In summary, the magistrate considered that the City had access to the biometric data of people who were not on the wanted lists, although the Ministry of Justice and Security under the orbit of Marcelo D´Alessandro explained at a press conference that these requests to the national database related to “identity validations” linked to procedures carried out before the City such as a certificate of residence or survival, a complaint; or as part of the “Safe Tribune” program on football pitches. Even traffic permits due to COVID.

The City challenged Gallardo and managed to pull him off, but Elena Amanda Liberatori position of the Litigation, Administrative and Tax Court 14, again stopped the measure.

Beyond this situation, national government sources highlighted the establishment of this system, and the political agreement of deputies and senators to move forward with the strengthening of criminal justice and the appointment of prosecutors.

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