Interior Department plans to use Clearview AI to find missing and murdered Indigenous people

The US Interior Department intends to award a contract to Clearview AI for facial recognition to help investigators with cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people, according to contracting documents reported by FedScoop.

The department says the technology will enable staff to "rapidly identify and locate missing persons, crime victims, and suspects nationwide". It wants six accounts for the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Missing and Murdered Unit, its Office of Justice Services and cases involving human trafficking and internet crimes against children. "Access to Clearview AI's platform is critical to [the unit]'s mission, providing capabilities necessary for sensitive and urgent investigations," the documents say.

The notice is not a solicitation; other firms that believe they can provide the service were invited to submit capability statements.

A familiar supplier

Clearview's database is built from images collected from the open internet. The FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have used it, and a 2021 Government Accountability Office report found that the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice and the Interior had used it too.

The case for and against

Families and tribal governments have long pressed for faster action on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people, and the Interior Department created a dedicated unit to pursue them. Tools that help identify victims or locate missing people could make a real difference.

Facial recognition also carries known risks: errors that are more frequent for some groups, and a database built without consent. For use in communities already wary of federal authorities, the safeguards matter as much as the capability: human verification of every match, clear limits on use beyond the stated cases and transparency about results. Tribal governments, whose citizens are most affected, should have a say in how it is used.