WP EXCLUSIVE
Police seldom disclose use of facial recognition despite false arrests

A Post investigation found that many defendants were unaware of the technology’s role in linking them to crimes, leading to questions of fairness.

By Douglas MacMillan, David Ovalle and Aaron Schaffer
October 6, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Hundreds of Americans have been arrested after being connected to a crime by facial recognition software, a Washington Post investigation has found, but many never know it because police seldom disclose their use of the controversial technology.
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Police departments in 15 states provided The Post with rarely seen records documenting their use of facial recognition in more than 1,000 criminal investigations over the past four years. According to the arrest reports in those cases and interviews with people who were arrested, authorities routinely failed to inform defendants about their use of the software — denying them the opportunity to contest the results of an emerging technology that is prone to error, especially when identifying people of color.

In fact, the records show that officers often obscured their reliance on the software in public-facing reports, saying that they identified suspects “through investigative means” or that a human source such as a witness or police officer made the initial identification.

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The Coral Springs Police Department in South Florida instructs officers not to reveal the use of facial recognition in written reports, according to operations deputy chief Ryan Gallagher. He said investigative techniques are exempt from Florida’s public disclosure laws. … “Please do not document this investigative lead,” a department message appended to each photo search result says. … The department would disclose the source of the investigative lead if it were asked in a criminal proceeding, Gallagher added.

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By Douglas MacMillan
Doug MacMillan is a corporate accountability reporter for The Washington Post. He previously covered technology for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Businessweek.follow on X @dmac1

By Aaron Schaffer
Aaron Schaffer is a researcher on The Post's News Research team.follow on X @aaronjschaffer