LAPD Using Facial Recognition Devices to Identify People
/Los Angeles police are asking for federal funding to expand
facial-recognition systems to help them identify people, it was
reported today. "It's like a mobile electronic mug book," Capt. Charles
Beck of the Rampart Station told the Los Angeles Times. "It's not a
silver bullet, but we wouldn't use it unless it helped us make
arrests." Jose Hernandez, an alleged 18th Street gang member, is one of
19 people recently arrested by officers using the gadgets on the mean
streets just west of downtown, The Times reported. Officers Mark Hubert
and David Nick recently stopped two young men on a bicycle on Alvarado
Street to check them out -- doubling is illegal -- and senior lead
Officer Mike Wang used a handheld facial-recognition device on the one
who was pedaling. Within seconds, the computerized device compared a
digital image of the man to those in a database of more than 120 area
gang members, and the computer concluded there was a 94 percent
probability that he was Jose Hernandez, an gang member named in a civil
injunction. Based on that information, the officers searched the young
man and found some methamphetamine. Police arrested him, confirmed his
identity as Hernandez and booked him on suspicion of violating the
injunction by having an illegal drug. [more] and [more]
- The technology is not reliable and innocent people could be arrested for crimes they did not commit if the computer mistakenly identifies someone who looks like a wanted suspect but isn't. [more]
