Posted on 05/01/2019 5:03:50 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
Deputies in this corner of western Oregon outside ultraliberal Portland used to track down criminals the old-fashioned way, faxing caught-on-camera images of a suspect around the office in hope that someone might recognize the face.
Then, in late 2017, the Washington County Sheriff's Office became the first law enforcement agency in the country known to use Amazon's artificial-intelligence tool Rekognition, transforming this thicket of forests and suburbs into a public testing ground for a new wave of experimental police surveillance techniques.
Almost overnight, deputies saw their investigative powers supercharged, allowing them to scan for matches of a suspect's face across more than 300,000 mug shots taken at the county jail since 2001. A grainy picture of someone's face - captured by a security camera, a social media account or a deputy's smartphone - can quickly become a link to their identity, including their name, family and address. More than 1,000 facial-recognition searches were logged last year, said deputies, who sometimes used the results to find a suspect's Facebook page or visit their home.
But Washington County also became ground zero for a high-stakes battle over the unregulated growth of policing by algorithm. Defense attorneys, artificial-intelligence researchers and civil rights experts argue that the technology could lead to the wrongful arrest of innocent people who bear only a resemblance to a video image. Rekognition's accuracy is also hotly disputed, and some experts worry that a case of mistaken identity by armed deputies could have dangerous implications, threatening privacy and people's lives.
Some police agencies have in recent years run facial-recognition searches against state or FBI databases using systems built by contractors such as Cognitec, IDEMIA and NEC. But the rollout by Amazon has marked perhaps the biggest step in making the controversial face-scanning technology mainstream.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
They never seem to get the Islamic Fundamentalists.
Let the statistical battles emerge...
Can we use it on election day to stamp out ballot stuffing?
I have been tying my long mustache into dreadlocks and painting my face with a low contrast military camouflage scheme to try and defeat this. All this because of the stupid traffic cameras.
Funny you should say that. John has a long moustache.
Id like to be able to use this app. Citizens ought to be able to get his tech as well.
Get a little putty and change the shape of the tip of your nose. Maybe eartips or earlobes. Wear a wig that obscures all of your forehead. Really really huge black sunglasses hiding cheek and eye areas. Weird beard pattern.
Can it tell us who hired Craig Livingstone?
The most dangerous part of such algorithms is the faces associated with a match. The system also looks at and tags who a hit associates with. So think about it. FBI/using excuses to spy.
So what?
They aren’t even prosecuting crimes under a certain dollar amount anyways?
Why even bother? (rhetorical question)
“Blessent mon Coeur d’une langeur monotone” (Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor)
I am employed in a maximum security correctional facility. A while back we had a system installed that takes pictures of a visitor’s face, and matches that with a national database. (They want to be sure gangbangers, known drug distributors, etc. don’t get in)
When we installed the system, the contractor needed someone to stand in front of the backdrop screen so they could adjust the lighting, camera angle, focus, etc.
Now before I go on, I need to point out that I am a male, in the second half of my 50s, overweight and with a very typical “ugly old guy” face.
The guy running the system took the picture, and ran it to check the system. “Hey! You got a match!” The damn thing thought I was some ugly old woman from the other side of the country.
But they won’t put them in jail anyway.
The practical benefit of the burqa.
The Orange Beagle has flown the Coup.
The Miller has written a Lie.
We don’t need no Stinking Badgers!
That is All.
#13 You may identify as a women and did not know it until then.... : )
The thing we should all get behind is using this for voter ID.
No more wailing that it is too expensive or hard to get a voter ID card, or claims that “I left it home”.
Just get you picture taken when you register to vote and at the polling place before you get a ballot.
Voter fraud is suddenly diminished by 99%.
And, if you vote twice, the evidence is overwhelming.
In MA, they’re not even prosecuting shoplifters.
I expect that larger stores will fight back by banning shoplifters, and enforce this with facial recognition.
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