An elusive street performer traveling under the guise of Kevin Hodges was arrested in Nepal after evading the FBI for 14 years. The performer – a now internationally established juggler who speaks nearly a dozen languages – fled the United States with false papers in 1999 after being charged with child sex abuse and kidnapping. The odds of catching such a man were incredibly low until chance placed a clear image of his face beneath the scrutiny of the FBI’s facial recognition technology.
The man, whose real name is Neil Stammer, was identified after applying for a visa at the US Embassy in Nepal. His face was on file under the name Kevin Hodges with the Diplomatic Security Service, the agency responsible for verifying the validity of US visas and passports protecting the embassies. Coincidentally, the DSS was beta testing the FBI’s facial-recognition software by matching passports photos against the FBI’s wanted posters. Matching Stammer’s face to his alias was extremely easy because both photographs were passport-style, taken at close range with the suspect directly facing the camera.
According to the FBI, Stammer had been living comfortably in Nepal for a number of years teaching English to students hoping to get into foreign universities. With no leads whatsoever for the last 14 years, the case went dark until FBI Special Agent Russ Wilson was contacted by a DSS special agent who was testing the facial recognition software and decided to feed in the FBI’s wanted most wanted list on a pure whim.
In light of all the paranoia surrounding government surveillance and big data collecting, it’s nice to see the system working as intended: to catch bad guys. The FBI’s face recognition software is part of a grander effort called the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, which features a collective database featuring faces, fingerprints, irises, scars, marks, and tattoos.
Via FBI
Advertisement
Learn more about Electronic Products Magazine
