Image Recognition
Municipal police departments in Auburn, Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond have been experimenting with facial recognition since at least 2016, according to emails published by the ACLU , but it’s unclear if those cities have continued to use facial recognition since then. Crosscut reached out to courts in King, Pierce and Spokane counties seeking copies of any warrants issued for “ongoing surveillance/persistent tracking” since the law was passed. Lee said it allows for broad use of facial recognition to surveil crowds in public places, such as protests, and that there’s no penalty for flouting the transparency rules. In her view, technologies like facial recognition exacerbate existing biased practices within police departments. Studies of facial recognition have shown it to be less accurate at identifying women and darker-skinned people.