New York City Mayor Eric Adams is looking to expand the use of facial recognition by city police.
Politico noted that Adams, a centrist Democrat, is convinced the modern technology can accurately and ethically aid in identifying those responsible for crimes. He has incorporated enhanced use of facial recognition in his plan to combat violence in New York City.
“If you’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter — no matter what, they can see and identify who you are without violating the rights of people,” Adams said late last month as he pushed a plan to end gun violence. “It’s going to be used for investigatory purposes.”
In facial recognition, police use an image from a surveillance video and compare it to a photo database of known individuals, which is mainly put together from social media posts.
Some U.S. cities have pulled back from the technology.
In 2019, San Francisco banned the use of facial recognition software by police and other agencies, according to The New York Times.
“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” said Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who sponsored the bill. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”
According to Politico, the New York City Police Department has been using facial recognition for years. Now, Adams wants to take it further.
“We will also move forward on using the latest in technology to identify problems, follow up on leads and collect evidence — from facial recognition technology to new tools that can spot those carrying weapons, we will use every available method to keep our people safe,” Adams, a retired police captain, said.
But some are alarmed over Adams’s embrace of the technology.
"It just felt like the floor was dropping out from beneath me," said Albert Fox Cahn, head of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "To hear him this enamored with this sort of technology was incredibly disappointing. I was hopeful that he was someone uniquely positioned to push back against this sort of pseudo-science masquerading as public safety."
But Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said: "The city is at a critical turning point where we need to have more effective tools — plain and simple. The mayor is saying: Let’s study emerging technology and, if it’s effective, use it in a legal manner to make the streets safer while reasonably protecting the privacy of New Yorkers."