Suspected child abuse fugitive caught by facial recognition after 14 years

Neil Stammer spent 14 years on the run under a false name, but an FBI trial of facial recognition technology connected his fake passport to a 1999 photo. A man suspected of child sex abuse has been caught halfway around the world after 14 years on the run from authorities, thanks to facial recognition technology.


Neil Stammer, 48, of New Mexico, was caught in Nepal hiding under the alias Kevin Hodges, after his photo from 1999 was recirculated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on a reissued wanted poster in January.


Stammer had been arrested in 1999 on multiple charges including child sex abuse and kidnapping, but skipped bail. In May 2000 New Mexico issued an arrest warrant filing a federal fugitive charge, and one month later passing the case to the FBI.


“In addition to the current fugitives, I had a stack of old cases,” FBI special agent Russ Wilson said in a statement. “Stammer’s stood out.”


‘He never thought he would be discovered’


The US Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the agency responsible for controlling US passports and embassies, subsequently scanned the photo as part of a test of its new facial recognition software designed to uncover passport fraud.


The DSS matched Stammer’s photo to a passport under the name Kevin Hodges, which was being used for regular extensions to a tourist visa at the US Embassy in Nepal. “He was very comfortable in Nepal,” said Wilson. “My impression was that he never thought he would be discovered.”


Stammer, who spoke a dozen languages, was an internationally known juggler with a magic shop in New Mexico, and had been living in Nepal teaching English and other languages. The FBI worked with the Nepalese government to locate and arrest Stammer.


Multiple attempts have been made to set up facial recognition databases in the past, both in the US and the UK, causing rows over privacy and ethics. Proponents of facial recognition databases cite the ability to catch both criminals and terrorists through CCTV cameras and image databases, as Stammer was.


But opponents claim the added power for law enforcement does not outweigh privacy concerns for the general public.


“Unlike other biometric identifiers such as iris scans and fingerprints, facial recognition is designed to operate at a distance, without the knowledge or consent of the person being identified,” US senator Al Franken wrote in an open letter contesting facial recognition technology reaching devices like Google Glass smart glasses.


“Individuals cannot reasonably prevent themselves from being identified by cameras that could be anywhere – on a lamp post, attached to an unmanned aerial vehicle or, now, integrated into the eye wear of a stranger.” Stammer’s arrest after 14 years marks one of the first success stories to be directly powered by the new technology.



The guardian.com