Tampa Ditches Face Recognition After It Catches Exactly No One In Two Years
from the sounds-useful dept
There was a huge uproar after police in Tampa started using facial recognition software to try to catch wanted criminals. More than two years after the system debuted, police are tearing it down saying that it didn't help them catch a single person. It turns out that, the face recognition system pretty much saw everyone as being regular people (well, indirectly it did catch one person - but it was the wrong guy, and it was because a demo of the system caught the eye of a woman who insisted, falsely, that the guy seen in the demo was her ex-husband). While plenty of people have said for years that face recognition systems for catching people in a general crowd are useless, now there's a bit more evidence to support that assertion. A police spokesperson still tried to put a positive spin on the test saying that maybe knowledge of the system kept criminals away from Tampa. Yeah, I'm sure that was the first thing on the minds of fugitives on the run: "gotta avoid Tampa, they have a facial recognition system on the streets..."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
Next-generation scanners can do invisible 3-D scans by infrared lasers, which will be much more accurate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
Looks like we gotta go back to posting pictures of our most wanted at the post office - No replacement yet for real people (see other posts about robots replacing humans).
Sorta OT - did anybody read those articles about actors who played crooks on "America's Most Wanted" actually being detained after being spotted by people in crowds? Humans aren't that accurate on face recognition, or if they are, don't necessarially have the right data.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
Some days I have a goatee,
others I have a mustache.
Once in awhile, I'm clean shaven.
Sometimes I wear a baseball cap or a 'do rag.
Today my eyes happen to be brown and I am wearing glasses.
Tomorrow I might wear my green contacts.
Last week my hair was a lovely shocking yellow.
Two nights ago I shaved my head.
A week ago I dyed my skin a beautiful shade of tan.
All because I enjoy changing the way I look.
If my friends don't always recognize me, why would anyone think a 2nd generation machine will ?
Does anyone SERIOUSLY think one of these machines would positively identify Micheal Jackson, Then & NOW ???
The American Spirit will always find a way to spoof the system.
And no, I'm not a criminal, I just don't particularly like the idea of machines ( of far less worth than humans ) making critical decisions as to whether or not I'm worthy of whatever they are enslaved to proportedly protect.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
That's all fine and good, but where will the police get 3-D pictures of criminals to compare the live scans with? Your only as good as the data you've saved previously.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
But I do see your point - like say someone with light sensitive eyes just had to wear sunnies all the time. And that isn't too uncommon. They are also really really inaccurate with about 80% accuracy with a false positive rate of 1%.
Do your research next time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What about 2nd-generation facial recognition?
What's also interesting is that the only reason that cameras are accepted here in the UK is that. like guns, we don't trust them in the hands of our police forces. They are all operated by local authority employed civilians under very strict data protection guidelines. Incidents are then reported onwards to plod - who STILL says he's too busy.
IMHO - Behavioral recognition from companies like Ipsotek has a lot more potential.
[ link to this | view in thread ]