Detroit police have been one of the most public supporters of facial recognition software. Last week, the NYTimes and ACLU told the story of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams, a man falsely arrested using facial recognition tech.
Today, Detroit's police chief revealed that the software it uses doesn't identify the correct suspect a shocking 96% of the time.
vice.com/en_us/article/…
vice.com/en_us/article/…
It's crucial to understand who this is used against. Detroit has regulated facial recognition use, meaning the DPD has to put out a weekly report about its use. This year, it has been used EXCLUSIVELY against Black people
Detroit police said today that they believe it's still a useful tool for them because it helps with human-led investigations. But what does that mean? It means police are knocking on the doors of hundreds of Black people to interrogate them, it admitted today
I called up DataWorks Plus, the company that makes the software. They said they do not keep track of how accurate their software is. Said media is "weaponizing" facial recognition. Said that every time the software is used, it returns **hundreds** of potential matches
so what you have is a technology that FUNDAMENTALLY DOESN'T WORK being used by police EXCLUSIVELY against Black people, to harass and investigate them. It's outrageous
it's also like—the company that makes and sells this software doesn't even care if it works. They don't train police how to use it! They don't keep stats! Their facial recognition "matches" hundreds of people to an input photo ... what ... are ... we ... doing
police on the call said the use of facial recognition helped them find violent criminals-they named a case, said this makes it all worth it. But to find them, hundreds of Black men are being forced into situations with cops because software told them to knock on their door
i fail to see how this is any different than stop and frisk. A flawed algorithm put you in a lineup with 100 other people so you get a visit from the police today
