Police in Tampa have voluntarily scrapped its controversial face recognition surveillance system. It failed to result in any arrests or even positive identifications

In June 2001, Tampa became the first city in the nation to install the software to scan faces in the Ybor City nightlife district and check them against a database of more than 24,000 felons, sexual predators and runaway children.

But critics said it violated privacy rights, forcing people, without their consent, into what amounted to an electronic police lineup.

"People have the right to be anonymous, and not to be put in a police lineup for committing the offense of walking down a public street," said Darlene Williams, chairwoman of the Tampa area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The program was called FaceIt--manufactured by a company named Visonics, that now goes by the name of Identix, Inc. Visonics had donated the system to Tampa on a trial basis.

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