Your Face Isn't Safe Anymore

Hey everyone! Sorry for the extremely late post this week! I forgot to do it before I left for my kid's camping trip during Spring Break, and then I've been having to take care of them when we go home too. The flu sucks, I highly recommend not getting it.

Anyway, down to business. I read an article recently on The Washington Post about the police and how they are using facial recognition more and more, and if it is right for them to do so (Who's logging your face?). Being a future police cadet myself, I found this to be interesting in the sense that facial recognition is an up and coming technology in today's society, and I wanted to see what points the author brought up about why it might be a bad idea. The article brought up some interesting arguments that I do agree with: one being that using facial recognition for criminal investigations does not have any Federal laws regulating the use of the system, unlike fingerprinting where there are many laws that restrict the use of it to needing a warrant for the majority of it. The author also mentioned how many people might be less inclined to call 911 for an emergency if the body cam of the officer can use facial recognition to look up their criminal history. Both of these points I can understand why it would make the technology bad, but one needs to look at if the good outweighs the bad in society.

The other argument the author makes is the reliability of facial recognition. According to a study in 2012 co-written by an FBI expert, the technology does not have the same reliability as fingerprinting does. Where fingerprints are unique to every individual, facial recognition can and has mistaken people before, mainly in African Americans, women, and young people. After reading this article, I do have to side with the author's views on it: facial recognition may not be the best course of action in law enforcement. But I do believe that it still has it uses in it. While it should not be used solely by itself to convict a criminal, it can be used to help identify a possible suspect, much like a composite sketch can be used in a case. I think it'll be very interesting to see how the technology progresses in the next few years and the laws that the Federal Government will institute to help control the use of facial recognition.