Nationwide, police departments are integrating facial recognition technology into their investigative processes. The technology has been criticized as "exacerbating racist policies," because of false identification, especially among African American citizens.
The New York Times reported on a specific case in Atlanta, where a man was arrested for looking like a suspect in a robbery in Louisiana—a state he had never visited. Further, in the arresting documents, the police had not mentioned that facial recognition technology had been used. It took the man a week, and thousands of dollars, to be cleared.
The article quotes Molly Kleinman, managing director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, referring to automated license plate readers and other technologies used in the arrest. "There’s a lot of secrecy about all of these surveillance technologies and the ways that they’re used. This case is a perfect example that even when the tool works as intended if the underlying data is flawed it can still harm innocent people."
Read the article featuring Kleinman.
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