Did the Houston Police Department or the Houston METRO use Clearview AI to scan the face of a protestor per the request of the Israeli Consulate in Houston?

What is Clearview AI and facial recognition technology?

Clearview AI is an infamous vendor of facial recognition technology to all levels of law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The company sells a software that is designed to identify people of interest by having customers upload an image of a person’s face which is then scanned against a database of images with a goal of identifying a matching face. The company has built their secretive algorithm by scraping billions of images from the internet without consent or disclosure from the image owners. Large corporations have used and continue to use facial recognition technology in their stores, including Target, Walmart, and others.

Facial recognition technology is notoriously inaccurate as Clearview AI and other softwares are prone to misread and misidentify darker skinned people and women. Facial recognition technology has caused multiple false arrests of Black people. Watch this video for more about the harms of facial recognition technology in Detroit.

Even if facial recognition technologies were accurate, these tools would still be deeply violent as facial recognition, like other technologies that police use, intensify police power over criminalized people.

Facial recognition tools are used behind closed doors often with little oversight or transparency which feeds the ability of police to operate without accountability. What we (may) have uncovered in Houston proves this.

What have we found?

According to records obtained via public records requests, the Metro Transit Agency in Houston has had a contract with Clearview AI since at least July 2024.

According to other records obtained via public records requests, the METRO has three employees with user accounts for the use of Clearview AI.

One of the users, Bryan Morales, received an email on May 30, 2024 from Kimberly Perales, a person with Houston Police Department email address, with the subject line:

“Fwd: assistance request ,consulate of Israel in Houston .”

Additionally, Bryan Morales performed a Clearview AI search on April 28, 2025 where he provided the following title for the search:

“Katy hamas symphatizer intel”

We have requested the email sent by Kimberly Perales to Bryan Morales on May 30, 2025, among other documents, but the METRO and Houston Police Department are both dragging their feet on releasing records.

These records must be released. The public has a right to know.