In light of the rioting in London, British police have been using CCTV in combination with facial-recognition software footage in order to identify and separate the criminal elements in the crowd. The article goes on to speculates on the need of creating a database for “confirmed” faces (primarily faces that can be linked to an identity). The article even illuminates the issue of quality control and some of the problems that lighting, distance, and clarity plays in distorting and inevitably making it harder to match. With facial recognition technology commonly found in television and movies unavailable, combined with the likely chance to misidentify individual (which could also be used to benefit criminals); it seems that British officials have the daunting task ahead of them. Also police fear that people who resemble rioters (solely the images) may be in danger by vigilante groups (which introduces certain notions of stigma).In the end the article alludes to the social media such as Facebook (750 million users) and its database, and the potential it may have for law enforcement if they were to be exploited.
Its relevance speaks to me in the article we read called “A means of Surveillance: The photograph as evidence in law”. It describes the insertion of the photograph gradually into institutions such as the police apparatus and its connection to power. The photograph or surveillance footage in the article’s case has the power (in conjunction with police power) to incriminate, or identify to the jury a person to the site of a “crime” or act of deviancy.
I agree with Ricardo that it can be dangerous at times to catch criminals by using high tech facially recognition cameras and software but I believe it is very helpful. We didnt have this type of technology 5 to 10 years ago and had to catch criminals in every way possible with just the technology that we had at hand. With all these new technological advances we can catch criminals at a faster rate and identify exactly who did what crime.
However, I do agree that these type of cameras and software can catch the wrong people because of the shadows or angel that might be created when the picture is taken. It can definitely distort the picture to the point where we can not identify who exactly the person is and if it is the person we are looking for. That is why I think we need to take those picture and look at them even closer before we can convict a criminal. That’s exactly why today we have such sophisticated technology to catch high profile wanted individuals.
Going back to the crimes in London, they have to do whatever is necessary to stop as much people as possible and with the use of the high tech software. It will definitely shorten the time spam it takes to catch one person. With all of them wearing these hoods, it is even harder for cameras to catch their face clearly enough to identify the individual. With time is will only get more evolved.