Even if it’s only used to generate leads, face recognition often plays an outsized role in investigations — and can cause serious harm.
Law enforcement often defends face recognition by claiming they just use it for leads — rather than as the center of a prosecution — but this is not a meaningful safeguard. Using untrustworthy information in investigations is always dangerous, regardless of whether that information is introduced in court. There are numerous reasons the “just used for leads” defense is cold comfort to those who have been wrongfully subjected to police actions based on ill-informed investigations.
First, the notion that face recognition is only one component of investigations is often simply untrue. There are already three documented cases where individuals were wrongfully arrested — with two spending time in jail — based entirely on bad face recognition matches. According to a 2020 New York Times investigation of face recognition systems in Florida, “Although officials said investigators could not rely on facial recognition results to make an arrest, documents suggested that on occasion officers gathered no other evidence.” And there are likely many similar instances of face recognition being the sole basis for an arrest we don’t know about, because use of face recognition in investigations is often hidden from arrestees and defendants.
Second, even when face recognition is just used for leads, a mismatch could still lead investigators down the wrong path and toward an improper arrest. Using unreliable evidence always creates danger of improper arrests and convictions, something we’ve seen repeatedly from outdated forensics and sketchy lie detector tests.
Individuals could be charged in part based on how a face recognition match affects the direction of an investigation early on. Law enforcement overconfidence in the accuracy of matches can promote confirmation bias and sloppy follow-up, limiting the ability to identify face recognition errors. For example, in one incident, New York City Police Department officers allegedly took a face recognition match, and then rather than try to legitimately confirm or disconfirm its accuracy, instead texted a witness, “Is this the guy…?” along with a single photo rather than following proper procedure to use a photo array.
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August 24, 2021 at 09:00PM
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Key Facts About Face Recognition for Policymaking - Project On Government Oversight (POGO)
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