Advocates Call on DA Zappala to End Use of Facial Recognition Technology

On October 17, 21 organizations based in Allegheny County sent a letter to District Attorney Stephen Zappala calling on him to be more transparent in the operations of his network of 1,000-plus cameras and to end the use of facial recognition technology. The letter is below.

Dear District Attorney Zappala:

We understand that the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is considering implementing facial recognition technology in conjunction with surveillance cameras and license plate readers. We ask that your office commit to not using facial recognition technology and to having greater transparency with respect to use of surveillance technology.

Use of facial recognition technology raises several concerns. In conjunction with surveillance cameras, facial recognition technology could be used for general, suspicionless surveillance in violation of citizens’ privacy rights. Also, the harms from the use of facial recognition technology will have a disproportionate impact on communities of color and immigrant communities. These communities already experience racially biased policing and enforcement practices. Facial recognition represents a dangerous new tool that will further contribute to over policing — and the wrong type of policing — in our communities.

Research has shown that facial recognition technology is particularly inaccurate when attempting to identify people of color and women.1 Similarly, the ACLU recently ran photos of members of Congress through Amazon’s “Rekognition” facial recognition product and found that 28 members of Congress incorrectly “matched” with mugshot booking photos of arrestees. Of the false matches, 39 percent were people of color, even though people of color make up only 20 percent of lawmakers in Congress. Use of facial recognition technology would disparately impact people of color and women and fray relationships and trust between law enforcement and policed communities.

Monitoring children with facial recognition technology is particularly troubling. Facial recognition technology is less accurate with children’s faces, and children should not be subjected to surveillance. Children are still
developing and should be given opportunities for treatment…