New Haven Adopts Facial-Recognition Tech

By Dereen Shirnekhi, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Elicker administration plans to switch over from fingerprint readers to facial-recognition technology at 11 different workplaces this week in order to better track when city employees clock into their shifts.

According to the city’s chief technology officer, the new tech will not scan the faces of members of the public; nor will it apply to every person who works for city government.

It will be limited to the roughly 340 municipal employees whose departments already use fingerprint-reading technology to determine when they start and stop their work days. Those include the assessor’s office, the 911 call center, the Department of Public Works, the Parks Department, and the IT Department.

“These clocks are timekeeping tools, not surveillance devices,” city Chief Technology Officer Michael Simeone told the Independent. “They activate only when an employee steps up to clock in, and they do not record video or track anyone’s movements.”

According to Simeone, the technology will have “strong anti-spoofing measures” and offer “a more reliable, accessible, and secure timekeeping experience.”

Simeone confirmed on Thursday that the city intends to replace its existing UKG (Kronos) 4500 Model time clocks with new UKG 9000 Model InTouch TouchFree ID time clocks. The older time clocks, which have been in place since 2010, include biometric fingerprint readers, but that technology has been replaced by the maker with biometric facial recognition.

According to Simeone, the city is working with the vendor to upgrade the equipment, as the previous fingerprint technology is no longer supported. Because this isn’t a new initiative, Simeone said, no approval is needed from the Board of Alders.

The city plans to move over to the new time clocks by the end of September. Simeone said details are still being finalized as to what the final cost will be.

Some cities, like Boston and San Francisco, have mostly banned municipal use of facial-recognition technology. Those cities’ legislators have cited concerns that the technology could be less accurate and therefore racially discriminatory if used by police departments, as well as other opportunities for abuse.

New Haven Police Department (NHPD) spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart told the Independent that the police department doesn’t have any of its own programs that use facial-recognition technology. He did say, however, that different divisions of the NHPD, like the detective bureau, sometimes use programs from other law-enforcement agencies that include facial-recognition technology. That, he said, is “few and far between.”

“It’s never been used to make an arrest,” Bruckhart said.

“The space is moving so quickly,” he added. “It’s tough for departments to keep up and it’s tough for legislators to keep up as well.”

This year, the Connecticut legislature amended the 2022 Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) to include protections around facial-recognition technology, among others. Those regulations, however, largely extend to private companies. State and local governments are exempt.

Asked what the city’s response is to employees who might be concerned about their privacy, Simeone said over email, “The city is committed to protecting employee data. The new time clocks do not store anyone’s actual photo—rather encrypted numerical values associated with a facial image—and the original image is deleted immediately. The numerical values cannot be turned back into a face; they are kept securely encrypted in the city’s private UKG cloud network and can be permanently removed by city network administrators at any time.”

Simeone continued, “The time clocks are transitioning from one type of biometric data (fingerprints) to another type of biometric data (facial recognition), similar to technology that municipal employees use every day with their personal and government-issued smart phones and other devices.”

One location where these new time clocks will be installed is the office of the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) at police headquarters. AFSCME Local 3144 President Jeff Patton, who also serves as PSAP’s deputy director, told the Independent that he isn’t concerned about the facial-recognition technology.

“We use the fingerprint,” he said. “I work in the police department. My face is being recorded all the time.”

Patton said that members of his union haven’t brought any concerns to him regarding the new technology. He said that he attended a meeting the city held with union leaders on the topic but that he was the only union member there.

The 11 new time clocks will be placed in the following department locations:

• Assessors Department at 165 Church St.
• Department of Public Works (DPW) Refuse Garage
• DPW – 34 Middletown Ave.
• Parks – 180 Park Maintenance Garage
• Parks – 180 Park Road (Main House)
• Parks – 720 Edgewood Avenue
• Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) – 1 Union Ave.
• East Shore Park
• Lighthouse Park
• Lighthouse Park – New Maintenance Garage
• Hall of Records – IT Department

According to Simeone, these locations have already been using electronic time clocks. Employees won’t have the ability to opt out of using the facial-recognition software. He estimated around 340 employees report to these locations.

City IT Director Chet Sawicki told the Independent over email that his department moved over to electronic time clocks with fingerprint technology around six years ago, after using a manual process for managing time and attendance and processing payroll. The manual process, he said, was time-consuming and led to delays in processing payroll.

“Since the migration to the electronic processing we have drastically reduced the time it takes on a weekly basis to process payroll from hours to under 15 minutes,” he said. “The electronic time and attendance system not only captures accurate time and attendance records, but it also integrates into our payroll system which eliminates the need to manually enter in time records for each employee.”

Sawicki said that the transition to electronic time clocks was not because employees weren’t clocking in on time. “The decision was based on accuracy of information, reduction of weekly payroll processing time, along with visibility and peace of mind for employees,” he said.

Parks Director Max Webster, who joined the city in late 2024, said that plans for the new time clocks began before he took over as director. He said the department planned to switch to the new time clocks on Monday.

“It’s not really my wheelhouse, to be honest with you,” Webster said when asked about the specifics of the technology. “I’m supporting the city’s overall goal in terms of data protection for employees.”

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.