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The FBI has begun using a facial-recognition surveillance system that will store millions of mug shots - and could even use driving licence pictures.

FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers 'We're piloting the use of mug shots, along with our fingerprint database, to see if we can find bad guys by matching pictures with mug shots.

Earlier this year the Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed the system is capable of processing 55,000 faces a day - and that it will have 52 million faces by 2015.

The database, shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States, already has 7-8 million individuals loaded.

However, Comey admitted he was not sure where the pictures were coming from, amid claims driving license pictures as well as police mug shots would be used.

'I don't think so. The Next Gen Identification, as I understand it, is about mug shots,' Comey said, according to Arstechnica.

'I think there is some circumstances in which when states send us records, they'll send us pictures of people who are getting special driving licenses to transport children or explosive materials or something—but as I understand it, those are not part of the searchable Next Generation Identification database.'

The database, shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States, already has 7-8 million individuals.

Earlier this year the Electronic Frontier Foundation, under the Freedom of Information Act, obtained records from the bureau showing as many as 52 million images by next year, and that it will include pictures of innocent people.

In response to a question from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), the director said he wasn't sure of the accuracy of the EFF's claims.

'I saw some of the same media, and that's what led me to ask my folks: so what's the deal with this?' Comey said.

'And the explanation to me was the pilot is mug shots.

'Because those are repeatable, we can count on the quality of them.

'And they're tied to criminal conduct, clearly. And so there was not a plan and there is not at present where we are going to add other non-mug shot photos. But again, if I've got that wrong I'll fix it with you.'

The FBI is piloting the program with a company called MorphoTrust. Lofgren said MorphoTrust has also produced a State Department facial recognition database holding some 244 million images.

'Will your Next Generation Identification system be capable of importing the State Department records or searching the State Department records?' she asked - to which Comey said he was unsure.

'The records we received show that the face recognition component of NGI may include as many as 52 million face images by 2015,' the EFF's Jennifer Lynch said.

The latest documents also reveal that non-criminal photos will be included.

'One of our biggest concerns about NGI has been the fact that it will include non-criminal as well as criminal face images,' the EFF said.

'We now know that FBI projects that by 2015, the database will include 4.3 million images taken for non-criminal purposes.

The EFF received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI).

The system builds on the FBI's legacy fingerprint database, which already contains well over 100 million individual records, and has been designed to include multiple forms of biometric data, including palm prints and iris scans in addition to fingerprints and face recognition data.

NGI combines all these forms of data in each individual's file, linking them to personal and biographic data like name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, race, etc.

The database is shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States.

The system builds on the FBI¿s legacy fingerprint database, which already contains well over 100 million individual records, and has been designed to include multiple forms of biometric data, including palm prints and iris scans in addition to fingerprints and face recognition data.

By 2012, NGI already contained 13.6 million images representing between 7 and 8 million individuals, and by the middle of 2013, the size of the database increased to 16 million images.

The new records reveal that the database will be capable of processing 55,000 direct photo enrollments daily and of conducting tens of thousands of searches every day.

The new system also link criminal and non-criminal fingerprint databases.

Every record—whether criminal or non—will have a "Universal Control Number" (UCN), and every search will be run against all records in the database.

'This means that even if you have never been arrested for a crime, if your employer requires you to submit a photo as part of your background check, your face image could be searched—and you could be implicated as a criminal suspect—just by virtue of having that image in the non-criminal file, sayd the EFF. 

The states taking part in the project

It says the new system raises major privacy concerns.

'NGI will allow law enforcement at all levels to search non-criminal and criminal face records at the same time.

'This means you could become a suspect in a criminal case merely because you applied for a job that required you to submit a photo with your background check.

'Second, the FBI and Congress have thus far failed to enact meaningful restrictions on what types of data can be submitted to the system, who can access the data, and how the data can be used.

'This is not how our system of justice was designed and should not be a system that Americans tacitly consent to move towards.'