AST March 2018 Magazine March 2018 Final -3.3.18 | Page 13

Volume 21
Fact Three: Enhancing images helps to find the bad
people.
• At the conference, there was a ton of buzz about the ability
to enhance images.
• Some even questioned the practice and asked whether it was a
bad to manipulate probe images.
• The facts show that we are not manipulating but enhanc-
ing what is already there to develop a lead.
• When we use enhancement tools to render a poor-quality im-
age usable for facial recognition investigations, we are simply
taking that image and cleaning it up so that it can be used to
generate a potential match by the facial recognition software.
• For example, what happens when you add eyes to a picture
of someone with closed eyes and you end up with a potential
match that ranks 100?
• You investigate, you look into the background, and you vet that
photo.
• Take the case of twins. If you put in a photo of one twin the
other will show up as a match. Does that mean you arrest the
match?
March 2018 Edition
thing done when agencies use sketch artists?
• The find someone who resembles the sketch through physical
characteristics but still need to validate the potential match as
a viable candidate in the Investigation.
Fact Four: You don’t have to be a graphic design expert
to use enhancement tools.
• For many agencies, biometric facial recognition is off the table
because they falsely believe that you need to either be an ex-
pert at graphic design or you have to outsource image editing
software and training to use the technology.
• My time with the NYPD as the Lead Detective for the agency’s
first dedicated facial recognition unit taught me that law
enforcement needs tools that are easy to use or they won’t use
them at all.
• That experience led to the development of Vigilant’s simple to
use image enhancement tools.
Want to know more? Get the Whitepaper: Facial Recognition: Art
or Science?
• No, what you have is a lead to investigate. Isn’t the same
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