Inside Utah's facial recognition system: How police use the technology SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah law enforcement agencies are increasingly using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects, but state law limits its use to specific circumstances and imposes some of the strictest safeguards in the nation. Under Utah law, facial recognition technology may only be used for certain law enforcement purposes, including felony investigations, violent crimes, threats to human life, and efforts to identify deceased, incapacitated or at-risk individuals. The technology recently came under scrutiny in the case of Brad Johnston, who faced a felony charge related to the vandalism of an Uber driver's vehicle after a facial recognition match linked him to the case. Johnston maintained he was not involved. “The only way I can describe it was just terrifying,” Johnston said. MORE: Facial recognition AI misidentifies Utah man in felony vandalism case The match was generated from surveillance video taken from inside the Uber ride, but Johnston insisted investigators had identified the wrong person. After months of court proceedings, the case was ultimately dismissed. According to the most recently available data, Utah law enforcement agencies submitted 1,191 facial recognition requests between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. Of those, 706 resulted in probable matches, a rate of about 59%. State law requires all facial recognition requests to be processed through the Utah Department of Public Safety. Tanner Jensen, chief of investigations for the department, said requests from law enforcement have increased over the past five years. Jensen said the system will analyze biometric data and measurements and two people manually review each image submitted for comparison. The process results in one of two outcomes: a possible match or no result. Once findings are returned to the requesting agency, the department's involvement ends. “If they do