Facial recognition tech needs more work. This tech is now law enforcement mainstream. According to this report by Khari Johnson for Wired , facial recognition tech has played an integral part in another wrongful arrest of an innocent person. The software said his face matched the CCTV footage.
Fortunately for Alonzo, his wife Carronne Sawyer went to bat for him after he was arrested. Carronne drew attention to details in photos on her phone taken recently by her daughter. Her husband is taller than the suspect in the video, she explained, and has facial hair and gaps between his teeth. His right foot slews out when he walks, something she did not see in video footage of the attack.
Thanks to this failure, Maryland state senator, Charles Syndor, is, once again, seeking to block facial recognition tech use by government agencies. His first attempt, mounted in , failed to go anywhere. With a wrongful arrest now on the record, Senator Syndor figures this is the best time to push legislation seeking to regulate law enforcement use of unproven and unregulated tech. The Baltimore PD is a fan of facial recognition and wholeheartedly embraces its arrival.
And no cop agency should be allowed to use nothing more than a purported match to obtain arrest warrants or stop citizens going about their daily business. The tech is too raw to trust. Filed Under: alonzo sawyer , facial recognition , false arrest , maryland , maryland transit administration police.
Now think of Devin Nunes, the Internet cow, facial age verification and face recognition⦠shudder. This will be a long term problem, sadly. Some people will welcome the ambiguity or false positives known of a system to distract from their own prejudices. Once they make an arrest, they can say they have a suspect in custody, they have action on the case. The much better solution is when it is wrong, there is an award paid to the falsely accused that is very public and very large.
