NORTH PORT — The North Port Police Department is seeking a contract with a facial recognition software firm to help in investigations. The software uses artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, a notice of intent to acquire facial recognition software from Clearview AI was announced by the city of North Port in an email. The cost of the service, according to the announcement, is $11,400 for the first year. The second year’s rate is $28,500. Clearview AI, according to its website, is an “American technology company that provides a powerful facial recognition search engine primarily to law enforcement and government agencies.” More than 3,100 law enforcement agencies across the globe use the service, according to the Clearview website. “Clearview AI works by matching an uploaded photo of a face against a massive database of tens of billions of publicly available images scraped from social media, news sites, and the internet,” Clearview AI’s website states. “It converts facial features into unique mathematical vectors to find similar matches within seconds.” Some residents saw the news about the intention of NPPD to acquire the new service and voiced concerns on social media. Concerns over surveillance has become prevalent with the subject of Flock cameras, for example, growing in popularity. The city of North Port does not have Flock cameras; however, it does have other types of cameras across the municipality. NPPD Deputy Chief Chris Morales said facial recognition software is not uncommon, and Clearview is an investigative tool used by law enforcement when a surveillance photo of a person cannot be made out. Clearview, he said, can be used to find characteristics of a person being investigated. Morales said NPPD is not “actively” using the software, but is using it “reactively.” The same practice, according to Morales, is used for surveillance cameras in the city.