Law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology during investigations has blossomed in recent years thanks in no small part to a boomingsurveillance industry built on the back of an ever-expanding buffet of publicly available biometric data. The limits on where and how that technology can be used though remain legally murky and are constantly evolving. Now, it appears at least some law enforcement agents are flirting with the idea of using facial recognition at otherwise seemingly benign traffic stops, a potential loosening of the tech’s use that has legal and privacy experts on edge.
As first reported earlier this month by Insider’s Caroline Haskins, that hypothetical was floated during a 2021 episode of the Street Cop Training podcast, a program intended for police officers looking to learn new investigative techniques. In the episode, the show’s host, Dennis Benigno poses a scenario to his guest, Nick Jerman.
“Let’s say you are on a traffic stop and we have someone in the car who we suspect may be wanted?” Benigno asked. “How would you go about investigating somebody who you think may be trying to hide their apprehension and hide out who they are?”
Jerman, who had spent the rest of the episode describing ways to use publicly available social media tools to identify potential targets during a police investigation, responded by saying, “there are a couple paid programs you can use, [presumably referring to Clearview AI and apps like it] where you can take their [the driver’s] picture and it will put it [the photo] in.”