AST March 2018 Magazine March Final -3.3.18 | Page 18

Volume 21
recognition use in criminal investigations is that all matches
returned by the software, and validated by human analysis,
remain possible leads.
• Probable cause for arrest must be met by other investigatory
means.
As to claims of racial bias in the Georgetown Study,
when would someone’s race be applied to a facial rec-
ognition search?
• If a facial recognition user is working with a large database of
faces, and the suspect has been described as a male or female,
and the subject’s race is known.
• However, this is not a biased search. This is a filtered search.
• These types of demographic filters (which are found within the
image metadata) are applied to facial recognition searches to
narrow a list of returns to a much smaller scale.
• This basic metadata, which works in tandem with the facial
recognition algorithms, is simply the pedigree information
associated with an arrest photo, or driver’s license photo, and
includes gender, race, age, date of birth, height, weight, or any
other descriptive feature.
• Screen shot from Vigilant Solutions FaceSearch showing an
image-editing tool that can be used to improve the odds of a
match.
March 2018 Edition
• In my experience, these false narratives are often fueled and
driven by the misinformed, and are professed usually for their
own self-promoting reasons.
Documenting and Auditing Key to Facial Recognition
Investigations
I strongly recommend that any agency electing to use facial recog-
nition capabilities document each search and have full auditing
capabilities.
• Doing so ensures all the officers within law enforcement agen-
cies are utilizing this technology properly, and brings needed
integrity to an already unfairly criticized technology.
• This