Jeff Jarvis, Moral Panic, and Facial Recognition

Jeff is a regular on TWiG (This Week in Google) on the TWiT network.

He is professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a thinker, about many things. I own (and have read) his books, and agree in almost every case...

But his "Moral Panic" rants on TWiG in the last few weeks require a response.

Every time the subject of facial recognition being applied to CCTV and video footage comes up, Jeff winds up. His immediate response is that everyone forgets the GOOD that Facial Recognition  could do.

Imagine if you are trying to locate a lost child, or a wandering Alzheimers patient! Facial recognition could save lives.  His argument last week was that there is a judicial system that will sort out false positives.

Yes, Jeff, it could. But lets look at another situation...

A man of color robs a liquor store, and shoots two people, and escapes in a black car. FR applied to video from the liquor store identifies Joey Boggs with 97% certainty. Joey lives five blocks away, and drives a black car. His image pops up in every police cruiser for miles around as a suspect in a multiple homicide.

Fifteen minutes later a police car spots Joey in has car and pulls him over. He is not a lost child or wandering Alzheimers victim, so police approach the car with guns drawn. Joey realising he is in a dangerous situation is careful, but as he reaches for his drivers licence he is shot 16 times by officers who will swear he was reaching for a gun, and they were in danger.

The police officers will face no discipline, and will be back on the street tomorrow.

The good news is that a Coroners court will prove Joey was innocent, to the relief of his widow and orphaned children, but Joey is still dead, because Facial Recognition systems are far from accurate, and police officers in America work on a hair trigger.

An incorrectly identified lost child or wandering Alzheimers sufferer will not be at risk of being shot, only being embarrassed or frightened.

After the Boston Marathon bombing, the misidentification of an innocent man as one of the bombers lead to his harassment and eventual suicide.

It is not moral panic to call Facial Recognition not ready for real time use yet. Entitled white men probably have little to fear, but it is NOT Moral Panic to suggest it is too soon for these technologies to be generally available to law enforcement.

Facial recognition is NOT like fingerprints. If I am custody, I can be fingerprinted, but I am not likely to get shot by a police officer while being fingerprinted. I don't wear my fingerprints visibly, I have to be asked to provide them. My image is captured whether I want it to be or not.

In Australia, intelligent camera systems are being used to look down into cars and spot drivers who are texting or using mobile phones while driving. Once again, a ticket can be taken to court and argued without danger.

NOTE: Updated 02/10/2019 last 5 paragraphs added or edited.

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