A New Report Highlights How the New York Police Department Uses Facial Recognition

The New York Police Department manipulates photos to get facial recognition hits in order to identify suspects or find a lead in a case. According to a report from the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology, the police department used images of celebrity look-alikes and edited photos to garner more matches.

The controversial software was banned in San Francisco becoming the first major city in the United States to do so. WNYC's Jamie Floyd spoke with the report's author, Clare Garvie. 

Garvie said the way the photos are used raises a lot of questions surrounding constitutional rights — especially because it is a legal requirement that defense attorneys be told if the prosecution has information that might exonerate their client. But Garvie said that public defenders and defense attorneys aren't even being told if the technology is being used in their cases.

Additionaly, Garvie said, "We don't know whether the NYPD conducts audits, or checks for misuse and abuse of facial recognition."