Study Casts Doubts on Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology

Study Casts Doubts on Police Use of , Facial Recognition Technology . Gizmodo reports that a landmark report on facial recognition has found that law enforcement agencies are using the technology as the sole grounds for arrests. . Gizmodo reports that a landmark report on facial recognition has found that law enforcement agencies are using the technology as the sole grounds for arrests. . The report by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology identifies a number of flaws that include technical shortcomings and human error. The report by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology identifies a number of flaws that include technical shortcomings and human error. According to the authors, the technology has a multitude of technical shortcomings detailed in the report, titled , 'A Forensic Without the Science: Face Recognition in U.S. Criminal Investigations.'. Police have used face recognition for more than 20 years based on the assumption that it is a reliable identification tool, Clare Garvie, Report author and distinguished fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology, via 'Gizmodo'. Not only has that assumption never been tested, there is every reason to posit that face recognition doesn’t produce reliable leads and in fact may put people at risk of misidentification and wrongful arrest, Clare Garvie, Report author and distinguished fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology, via 'Gizmodo'. 'Gizmodo' reports that numerous studies have found that facial recognition is less accurate when attempting to identify women and people of color. These problems have been found to be so severe that some experts have reportedly called for the technology to be banned altogether. Over its past 20 years of use, face recognition algorithms have improved, but the people running the searches have not, Clare Garvie, Report author and distinguished fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology, via 'Gizmodo'. There is still a tendency to place undue faith in an artificial neutral, mathematics-based approach to solving hard problems or eliminating human error from decision- making. This is the wrong approach, Clare Garvie, Report author and distinguished fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology, via 'Gizmodo'. There is still a tendency to place undue faith in an artificial neutral, mathematics-based approach to solving hard problems or eliminating human error from decision- making. This is the wrong approach, Clare Garvie, Report author and distinguished fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology, via 'Gizmodo'