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In the Criminal Justice System, Big Brother Gets Bigger Every Day

Loaded on April 15, 2020 by Douglas Ankney published in Criminal Legal News May, 2020, page 45
Filed under: witness misidentification, Police State-Surveillance. Location: United States of America.

by Douglas Ankney

According to a report by sciencefriday.com, one in every two American adults is in a law enforcement facial recognition network. Most adults have unwittingly consented to the release of their photos that they have uploaded to social media, including dating sites.

While it’s impossible to determine the exact number of people in a facial recognition database, the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology reported that over 117 million people are in law enforcement facial recognition networks.

In addition, the Government Accountability Office found that in a four-year period the FBI conducted over 118,000 face recognition searches on its database.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has mined the Department of Motor Vehicles databases of states that grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. And numerous police departments scan the faces of passersby using hand-held surveillance cameras.

But the accuracy of facial recognition technology is questionable. While Chinese authorities managed to locate and arrest a man in a crowd of 60,000 at a concert using recognition technology, Amazon’s software “Rekognition” misidentified 28 members of Congress and matched them with criminal mugshots. The rate of ID mismatch is far worse for women and people of color. Facial recognition can be thought of as a “faceprint.”

A computer analyzes each person’s unique facial structure, such as the distance between both eyes and the distance from the nose to the lips. It then maps those key features onto an existing image, or compares them against a database of existing images.

Apparently, these measurements are subject to change with varying facial expressions, which might account for some of the mismatches. Additional misidentification factors include jewelry, clothing, hairstyles and lighting. 

 

Source: sciencefriday.com

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  1. Changing Perception, Changing The Law, by Jean Trounstine
  2. California Supreme Court Finds IAC, Vacates Conviction in LAPD Officer’s Murder Case (Again) – 36 Years Later, by Dale Chappell
  3. Ninth Circuit Opens Door for Savings Clause Relief, Recognizes ‘Actual Innocence’ for Mandatory Career Offender Sentences, by Dale Chappell
  4. Seventh Circuit: Trial Judge Violated 5th Amendment by Modifying Instructions to Allow Jury to Convict on Offenses Not Charged in Indictment, by Douglas Ankney
  5. Attacking the Guilty Plea: The Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Standard, by Dale Chappell
  6. Suspending the Constitution: Police State Uses Crises to Expand Its Lockdown Powers, by John W. Whitehead
  7. SCOTUS: ‘Serious Drug Offense’ Under ACCA Is Self-Defining, Match with Equivalent Federal Offense Not Required, by Dale Chappell
  8. Kansas Supreme Court Holds Threat of Violence Statute Violates First Amendment to Extent it Criminalizes ‘Reckless’ Conduct, by Dale Chappell
  9. SCOTUS: Advocating for Shorter Sentence Sufficient to Preserve Claim that Sentence Imposed Greater Than Necessary to Comply With 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), by Douglas Ankney
  10. New York Court of Appeals Orders Resentencing Because Trial Court Relied on Testimony from Improperly Unsealed Record, by Douglas Ankney
  11. California Court of Appeal: Senate Bill 1437 Abrogates ‘Natural and Probable Consequences Doctrine’ in Attempted Murder Prosecutions and Applies Retroactively to Cases on Appeal, by Douglas Ankney
  12. Sixth Circuit: Cardiologist’s Right to Due Process Violated Where District Court Ordered Government to Not Disclose Third Party’s Expert Evaluation of Medical Care Provided by Him, by Douglas Ankney
  13. En Banc Ninth Circuit Provides Guidance on When Amended Habeas Petition ‘Relates Back’ to Original Claims to Avoid Dismissal as Untimely, by Dale Chappell
  14. First Circuit: Home Search Affidavit Failed to Establish Nexus of Crime and Evidence, by David Reutter
  15. First Circuit: Securing a Weapon Not Used in Offense Is Not Exigent Circumstance Permitting Warrantless Entry and Search of Suspect’s Home, by Anthony Accurso
  16. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Reverses Murder Conviction Due to Insufficient Evidence, by Douglas Ankney
  17. Second Circuit Holds Denial to Proceed Under Pseudonym by Magistrate Judge Is Immediately Appealable, by Dale Chappell
  18. Fifth Circuit Settles In-Circuit Confusion, Holds Implicit Extension of Time to File State Appeal Tolls AEDPA Clock to File Federal Habeas Petition, by Dale Chappell
  19. Pennsylvania Prosecutors Cash in on Low-Level Drug Crimes, by Edward Lyon
  20. Former Florida Deputy Jailed for Fabricating Drug Evidence, by David Reutter
  21. Prosecutors Overrepresented Among Federal Judges, by Jayson Hawkins
  22. ‘Travel Papers’ and the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0, by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper
  23. FBI ‘Assessing’ Black Americans, by Jayson Hawkins
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  25. Seventh Circuit: Unsupported CI Statements Insufficient to Justify Higher Drug Quantity for Sentencing, by Dale Chappell
  26. Ninth Circuit: Proposition 47 Creates New, Intervening Judgment to Allow Another Federal Habeas Petition Attacking Entire Case, by Dale Chappell
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  41. Sealed Records Open for View, by Kevin Bliss
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  43. News Websites Rethink Using Mugshots as Click-Bait, by Dale Chappell
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