Biometrics industry representatives have informed politicians of the potential for facial recognition software to aid criminal investigations, at hearings in the technology's use by law enforcement.On Wednesday morning, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology.At the hearings, Benji Hutchinson, a Senior Director at NEC and Adjunct Professor at GMU, spoke on behalf of the International Biometrics + Identity Association.In his speech, Hutchinson that clarified race, sex, and age are not generally considered or factored into the mathematics of a facial recognition algorithm.He also noted that when used for investigation uses, that the final match decision, particularly for law enforcement applications, from search results is made by a human through a visual examination of ranked candidates returned by automated search.”In these applications, you can think of automated facial recognition as an 'investigative tool' that returns several match candidates of interest that are then further investigated by a trained professional examiner.”Similarly, in border security applications such as real time surveillance, the algorithms can be tuned to match only top candidates who surpass a certain score threshold, which would trigger a real time response. Even in these circumstances, trained professional examiners are responsible for taking action on any matches”.At the hearings, some officials had taken aim at the FBI's use of the technology.”I have zero confidence in the FBI and the [Justice Department], frankly, to keep this in check,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Massachusetts. “This is really Nazi Germany here, what we're talking about,” Lynch said. “And I see little difference in the way people are being tracked under this, just getting one wide net and getting information on all American citizens.”However, Hutchison noted that algorithms can be tuned to match only top candidates who surpass a certain score threshold, which would trigger a real time response. Even in these circumstances, trained professional examiners are responsible for taking action on any matches.He also spoke of a key role biometrics had played in wars in Iran and Afghanistan, and in fighting domestic crime.”[B]iometric and identity technologies matured rapidly and saved thousands of American lives on the battlefield ߪ In the law enforcement arena, these tools have also been used countless times as an investigative tool to solve or prevent crimes.”Meanwhile, Hutchison added that the IBIA supports continual education of how to effectively and responsibly use these tools, and continued development of best practices and more standards on facial comparison.”The members of IBIA believe that identification technologies should be used solely for legal, ethical, and non-discriminatory purposes. We are committed to the highest standards of systems integrity and database security in order to deter identity theft, protect personal privacy, and ensure equal rights under the law in all identification solutions.”
Lawmakers told of face recognition’s benefits at hearings
