ArgumentBans on Facial Recognition Are Naïve — Hold Law Enforcement Accountable for Its Abuse

Published 19 June 2020

The use of facial recognition technology has become a new target in the fight against racism and brutality in law enforcement. The current controversy over facial recognition purports to be about bias — inaccurate results related to race or gender. Osonde A. Osoba and Douglas Yeung write that “That could be fixed in the near future, but it wouldn’t repair the underlying dilemma: The imbalance of power between citizens and law enforcement. On this, facial recognition ups the ante. These tools can strip individuals of their privacy and enable mass surveillance.

The use of facial recognition technology has become a new target in the fight against racism and brutality in law enforcement.Last week IBM announced it was leaving the facial recognition business altogether, and within days, Microsoft and Amazon each announced that they would – at least temporarily – prohibit law enforcement agencies from using their facial recognition software. Osonde A. Osoba and Douglas Yeung write in The Hill thatfacial recognition technologies – with the assumptions of their developers embedded in their code – often perform poorly at recognizing women, older people and those with darker skin. “There’s little question that these flaws exist. But banning facial recognition isn’t necessarily the best response,” they write.

The current controversy over facial recognition purports to be about bias — inaccurate results related to race or gender. That could be fixed in the near future, but it wouldn’t repair the underlying dilemma: The imbalance of power between citizens and law enforcement. On this, facial recognition ups the ante. These tools can strip individuals of their privacy and enable mass surveillance.Civil libertarians may argue that facial recognition violates due process, but there is no guarantee that courts will agree.

Likewise, can police departments be trusted to monitor how their facial recognition tools are used or abused? If harms are discovered, will the criminal justice system be responsive to those whose lives hang in the balance? 

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The genie of facial recognition is not going back in the bottle. If not IBM, Microsoft or Amazon, someone else will sell facial recognition tech to police agencies. In a free market society, strong governance is the way to provide a robust defense against its improper use.

Although such broader police reform may prove more be more difficult to achieve, in the long run it will be more effective than any specific technology ban.