Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S. are about to start using hand-held facial-recognition devices that can take a person’s picture and run it through a database from up to five feet away.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the device attaches to an iPhone and can also perform retinal scans as well as take fingerprints. Manufacturer BI2 will deliver 1,000 of the devices to 40 law-enforcement agencies beginning in September.
Debate centers on whether use of the device constitutes an illegal search, but police are looking forward to the device regardless.
William Conlon, chief of police in Brockton, Mass., says he doesn’t consider the mobile device to be an invasion of privacy. His department tested a prototype last summer and is planning to adopt the device.
“It is just a picture. If you are out in public, I can take a picture of anybody,” said Mr. Conlon, “Most people will say, ‘I don’t have anything to hide, go ahead.’”
Unfortunately Chief Conlon is probably right.
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