ACLU of Utah Statement on Utah Attorney General’s Agreement with Liberty Defense to Promote a Security Threat Detection System in Utah

“We are concerned about the lack of detail and public input behind the Utah Attorney General’s decision to sign an agreement that promotes testing of an experimental, see-through 3D body scanner by Utah law enforcement in our state."

• This statement is attributed to John Mejia, ACLU of Utah Legal Director
• For Immediate Release: May 22, 2019
• Download this press release as a (PDF)
• Read the Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Utah and Liberty Defense Technologies, Inc. (PDF)

"People attending sporting events, festivals, and school campuses in Utah didn’t sign up to be guinea pigs to find defects in a private company's surveillance system.

If this product’s rate of false positives is as high as similar active millimeter wave body scanners, we are concerned that this untested technology will subject Utahns to needless invasive searches and lengthy interrogations. Additionally, this product could identify for law enforcement deeply personal and private items used by people that officers have no reason to know about, including insulin pumps, pacemakers, colostomy bags, and other medical devices.

The “airportization of American life,” where everyone is told to expect less privacy and more government surveillance, will erode our Constitutional rights to privacy and protection, and this technology puts us further along that path.

To decide whether this technology is something that can or should be used in Utah, we’d like to see the Attorney General’s office provide more details and increased transparency about the 3D scanning system, the images it generates, the artificial intelligence software that interprets these images, how and where the images are stored and identified, and who has access to them.

We also believe that the public should be allowed to participate in policies governing how law enforcement uses new and invasive surveillance technology.”

John Mejia, ACLU of Utah Legal Director