The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has finally introduced a policy on using facial recognition technology in its investigations, after almost a decade of its usage. Any matches through facial recognition will only be an investigative lead, and will not be enough as "to make an arrest, or obtain an arrest or search warrant”; corroborating information will be needed, the policy clearly states. This policy comes two weeks after BuzzFeed News reported that NYPD officers ran more than 11,000 searches on Clearview AI's controversial facial recognition software — "the most of any entity" — and that more than 30 NYPD officers have Clearview accounts. When can facial recognition be used? As per the policy, Facial recognition can only be used for “legitimate law enforcement purposes”, limited to mitigating an imminent threat to health or public safety (such as a terrorist plot), or to identifying: An individual who has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime A missing person, a victim, or a witness A deceased person A person unable to identify themselves An arrested person who does not have their ID, or is using a false identity The NYPD has been using facial recognition since 2011. According to its website, its Facial Identification Section received 9,850 requests for comparison and identified 2,510 possible matches, including possible matches in 68 murders, 66 rapes, 277 felony assaults, 386 robberies, and 525 grand larcenies, in 2019. It states that it “knows of no case” in New York City where a…
