New Haven Moves 340 City Workers to Facial-Recognition Time Clocks

New Haven Plans Facial-Recognition Clocks at 11 Sites

NEW HAVEN, CT — New Haven planned to swap the fingerprint time clocks at 11 municipal workplaces for facial-recognition devices by the end of September, a change that affects roughly 340 city employees, the New Haven Independent reported Monday, Sept. 28. Chief Technology Officer Michael Simeone confirmed the plan to the Independent on Thursday, Sept. 24.

The shift is an equipment upgrade within an existing timekeeping program. Simeone told the Independent no Board of Alders approval was needed because the city is continuing that program. The final cost was still being worked out when the Independent reported the plan.

The System Is Limited to Employees Who Clock In

The new devices will replace UKG (Kronos) 4500 time clocks with UKG 9000 InTouch TouchFree ID clocks. The existing equipment, installed in 2010, uses fingerprint readers; Simeone said that fingerprint technology is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Employees at the affected locations will not be able to opt out of facial recognition.

The 11 Sites Include Six Parks Locations

The 11 locations named in the report are the Assessors Department at 165 Church St.; the Department of Public Works refuse garage and its 34 Middletown Ave. site; six Parks locations—180 Park Maintenance Garage, 180 Park Road, 720 Edgewood Avenue, East Shore Park, Lighthouse Park and Lighthouse Park’s new maintenance garage; the Public Safety Answering Point at 1 Union Ave.; and the Hall of Records IT Department.

“These clocks are timekeeping tools, not surveillance devices,” Simeone told the Independent. According to Simeone, a clock switches on only when a worker stands in front of it to punch in, and the devices do not record video, follow anyone’s movements or scan members of the public. The system is intended for workers at departments already using fingerprint timekeeping, including the assessor’s office, 911 call center, Public Works, Parks and IT.

City Says Original Images Are Deleted

Simeone said the clocks do not retain an employee’s actual photo. Instead, they convert facial images into encrypted numerical values, and the original image is deleted immediately, he told the Independent. Those values are kept in a private UKG cloud network the city controls, cannot be converted back into a face, and city network administrators can erase them for good at any time, he said.

Boston and San Francisco are among the cities that have largely barred their own governments from using facial recognition, the Independent noted. Connecticut added facial-recognition protections to its 2022 data privacy law, but those rules mostly apply to private companies and do not reach state or local government.

AFSCME Local 3144 President Jeff Patton, who is also deputy director of the Public Safety Answering Point, told the Independent he was not concerned about the technology. He said union members had not brought concerns to him after he attended a city meeting with union leaders.

Parks Director Max Webster told the Independent his department planned to move to the new clocks Monday, Sept. 28. He said the plans predated his arrival as director and that he supports the city’s goal of protecting employee data.

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