Cops in Detroit have admitted using facial-recognition technology that fails to accurately identify potential suspects a whopping 96 per cent of the time.
The revelation was made by the American police force’s chief James Craig during a public hearing, this week. Craig was grilled over the wrongful arrest of Robert Williams, who was mistaken as a shoplifter by facial-recognition software used by officers.
“If we would use the software only [to identify subjects], we would not solve the case 95-97 per cent of the time,” Craig said, Vice first reported. “That’s if we relied totally on the software, which would be against our current policy … If we were just to use the technology by itself, to identify someone, I would say 96 per cent of the time it would misidentify.”
The software was developed by DataWorks Plus, a biometric technology biz based in South Carolina. Multiple studies have demonstrated facial-recognition algorithms often struggle with identifying women and people with darker skin compared to Caucasian men.
Robin Edgar
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