Police Commission to review LAPD’s facial recognition use after L.A. Times report

A man holds a camera outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in this undated photo. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Sep 22, 2020 / 02:06 PM PDT

Updated: Sep 22, 2020 / 02:06 PM PDT

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday said it would review the city Police Department’s use of facial recognition software and how it compared with programs in other major cities.

The commission did so after citing reporting by The Times this week that publicly revealed the scope of the LAPD’s use of facial recognition for the first time — including that hundreds of LAPD officers have used it nearly 30,000 times since 2009. Critics say police denials of its use are part of a long pattern of deception and that transparency is essential, given potential privacy and civil rights infringements.

Commission President Eileen Decker said a subcommittee of the commission would “do a deeper dive” into the technology’s use and “work with the department in terms of analyzing the oversight mechanisms” for the system.

“It’s a good time to take a global look at this issue,” Decker said.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.