Google Glass might soon be watching you.
The NYPD’s intelligence and analytics unit is testing whether Google Glass — space-age looking specs from the tech giant — would help the department, a police source told VentureBeat.com.
The publication is reporting that the nation’s largest police force has gotten ahold of several pairs of the glasses to test.
“We signed up, got a few pairs of the Google glasses, and we’re trying them out, seeing if they have any value in investigations, mostly for patrol purposes,” a ranking city law enforcement official said. “We’re looking at them, seeing how they work.”
Google Glass is a wearable computer connected to the side of a pair of glasses. A camera there has the ability to capture photo and video.
Google Glass could help match suspects’ names and faces to information contained in databases that law enforcement agencies use, such as those from the National Crime Information Center. An investigator could potentially pull up a mug shot or rap sheet information while interviewing a person.
The glasses aren’t yet in circulation and are available only through Google’s Glass Explorer program, which requires interested parties to apply to try out the new tool. Google can either accept or deny an application. Users must pay $1,500 for access to the technology.
The NYPD wouldn’t confirm that it was testing the glasses.
A spokesman for Google said in a statement that the company was not working with law enforcement but that the NYPD could have gotten the glasses through Explorer.
“The Glass Explorer program includes people from all walks of life, including doctors, firefighters and parents,” the statement reads. “Anyone can sign up to become a Glass Explorer, provided he or she is a U.S. resident and over the age of 18.”
But civil liberties groups could protest the Big Brother technology.
Some in law enforcement see the technology as limited.
“Its use for law enforcement and intelligence agencies is doubtful,” Vincent Cannistraro, a former ranking clandestine operator with the CIA, told the publication.
“But I’ve been wrong before.”
