Federal officials haven’t responded to senators’ facial recognition worries

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Four months after 18 Democratic and Independent U.S. senators - including U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) - told Attorney General Merrick Garland they were worried over the funding of facial recognition software, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to respond.

Lawmakers had given the DOJ until Feb. 29, 2024, to allay their concerns. To date, all the DOJ has acknowledged is that it’s in receipt of the lawmakers’ letter.

“We are deeply concerned that facial recognition technology may reinforce racial bias in our criminal justice system and contribute to arrests based on faulty evidence,” the senators wrote Garland. “Errors in facial recognition technology can upend the lives of American citizens. Should evidence demonstrate that errors systematically discriminate against communities of color, then funding these technologies could facilitate violations of federal civil rights laws.”

False Recognition: An Atlanta News First special investigation

Warnock and the senators said funding facial recognition software may lead to violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. They also called for additional action and oversight from department concerning the technologies.

A series of Atlanta News First investigations uncovered numerous cases where Black men have been wrongfully arrested and jailed by law enforcement authorities who relied extensively on facial recognition software.

Warnock’s office said numerous academic and government studies have found facial recognition technology is likely to misidentify not only Black faces, but Native American, and Asian faces as well. One study found that facial recognition software was up to twice as likely to find false positives for Black and Asian faces.

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