The Brea Police Department will soon be able to use facial recognition software to identify potential suspects during investigations. On Tuesday, Brea City Council voted unanimously with no discussion to enter into an agreement with the Integrated Law and Justice Agency for Orange County (ILJAOC). This agreement will also give Brea PD access to a system able to analyze faces from surveillance camera footage, a photo supplied from a victim or witness and more. It comes as there’s growing concerns about increased police surveillance throughout Orange County, with some residents criticizing such systems. [Read: OC Cities Look to Beef Up Surveillance Amid Privacy Concerns] Brea is the 13th law enforcement agency in Orange County to enter into this agreement. “The PD regularly receives Ring video, photos, and CCTV footage from victims and witnesses related to crimes. Many of these have clear images of the suspect, but we still don’t know who they are,” wrote Professional Standards Lieutenant Chris Haddad in an email to Voice of OC. “This could give the investigator an additional lead to investigate if the system provides a potential match,” he wrote. The system works by analyzing images submitted by an authorized investigator. The software then creates a mathematical representation of facial characteristics seen in the photos and matches them with photographs in a jail booking database. The software produces candidate matches that a trained human investigator must evaluate using other evidence. Haddad explained how the system will only compare photos of unknown persons against booking photos of known people. “This is simply a tool that may create leads if the police department has a clear image of a suspect and that suspect has been booked into county jail at some point and has a booking photo in the system,” he wrote. According to the system’s policy,