Slashdot Mirror
ACLU Examines Face-Recognition System
nate_drake and others wrote in about an ACLU report on face-recognition (PDF) (see also their press release and an MSNBC article). We've posted several previous stories about the Tampa police using face-recognition systems at the Super Bowl and on the streets of Ybor City.
From the pressrelease:
. And in response to the ACLU's queries about the small number of system logs, the department has acknowledged that the software -- originally deployed last June, 2001 -- has not been actively used since August.
It goes on to later mention "redistricting" as a reason for it not being used. What does changing police distrcits have to do wit hthis technology, anyway? Does that mean they stopped using patrol cars too? And police dogs?
The real reason: It just didn't work. At least not well enough to justify all the problems associated with its use.
I'm not afraid of falling, it's the sudden stop at the end that frightens me.
- The system has never correctly identified a single face in its database of suspects, let alone resulted in any arrests.
- The system made many false positives, including such errors as confusing what were to a human easily identifiable male and female images.
- The photographic database contains a broader selection of the population than just criminals wanted by the police, including such people as those who might have "valuable intelligence" for the police, or who have criminal records.
I wonder why they didn't mention that man who was a demo face for the system, and was subsequently misidentified then questioned as a felon. Guess it didn't make the logs.