USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION BY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
INTRODUCTION
The technology used by law enforcement agencies nowadays for a specific purpose is
Facial recognition technology, a way of identifying or confirming an individual’s identity
using their face. Facial recognition systems can identify people in photos, videos, or in
real-time1 . This technology employs algorithms to compare a person’s facial features
captured in a digital video or pictures to a database of known faces to identify or
authenticate the individual’s identity. Its uses include surveillance, security, authentication
etc2 . Facial recognition is often misunderstood as it doesn’t keep a check on individuals’
daily or monthly trips to business. Most importantly, law enforcement agencies use it to
carry on their investigations and verifications to have reliable and correct information for
identifying the suspect and preventing criminal activity that not only impacts a single
individual but also impacts society as a whole3 . So, it becomes important to understand
this technology and make great efforts towards its efficiency and reducing the drawbacks
it possesses. It is being used in various sectors, including the commercial sector, in terms
of biometrics, in various companies, organizations, etc., but it has a great role to play in
its usage by law enforcement agencies. They contribute to our society with the help of
this technology by helping to identify and suspect criminal activities and to secure justice.
Hence, to achieve its objective, this technology has to be used properly without any
discrimination or opaqueness in its usage and, therefore, try to reach the state free of
crimes, have law and order all around, and help society function smoothly.
HOW DOES THIS SYSTEM WORK?
The facial recognition system performs the task of scanning the facial image, saving it
and then comparing it against millions of data. This means scanning, saving and
comparing are its functions to initiate its system and work for its own task at hand. The
subject’s facial image attributes are derived from a still or a video image4 . The system
makes a difference between the face searched and face enrolled.
Law enforcement agencies use this technology to identify or discover while conducting
criminal activity investigations. It is of great help for detecting any criminal activity
taking place5 . It helps law enforcement agencies to do their work quickly and efficiently.
The working of this technology by law enforcement agencies involves analyzing or
identifying images and comparing them. It requires minute features while extracting
information like analysing the color of the face and the distance between the parts of the
face. With this, it analyzes a face and then compares to find a match. It leads to extracting
several pieces of information about a person, including their name, address, etc., which is
required during the investigation., but there are many concerns about its accuracy and
transparency. However, this system is of significant importance and usage for law
enforcement agencies. It helps them access reliable information and detect and prevent
criminal activity, but it is criticized for lacking accuracy. Critics held that it is inaccurate
to identify the color of people, etc. The technology is not highly diverse but rather
moderately diverse; hence this sometimes needs to be more accurate in identifying
people. It also often becomes inaccurate when people have some complexities like
surgeries, etc. There are instances where it was used and, later on, rendered inaccurate.
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in a study, has found that
facial recognition technology needs to be more accurate in identifying people’s color,
leading to incorrect interpretations and information and, hence wrong inferences and
conclusions. - With its wrong information, it can do injustice because relying on this technology for
reliable information can lead to false arrest of people and render injustice to them. This means it is doing more harm than good. Also, several other factors like lighting, quality of image, etc., can become a cause for its wrong information. - It even leads to biased results as it sometimes gives results filled with discrimination as
one of the reports by Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology found that this
technology has been used incorrectly, which shows the discrimination and biases it
possessed.
ELEMENTS
It involves five basic features or elements. Firstly, Image capture, which includes photographs.
Secondly, image usage, which predicates the use of images. Thirdly, Image retention is where the
length of time images are kept. Then, Image accuracy includes both the quality and exactness of
the image. Lastly, Human oversight, this function involves the ability of humans to make
decisions6 . Hence, there are cases where it has shown its effectiveness and is very helpful. For
instance, it has been seen as a helpful tool in counterterrorism as it can be used in emergencies
where a suspected terrorist attack is underway, as well as for fighting Human Trafficking, airport
security, and even in other spheres like healthcare. So, this technology helps investigators to
search for suspects more quickly and easily, find the missing children, achieve justice for
individuals, etc.
CHALLENGES
Facial recognition technology faces numerous challenges, but the legal challenges it faces are,
firstly, it violates people’s fundamental right, which is the right to privacy enshrined under
Article 21 of the Constitution of India. By the judgment of Justice Puttaswamy v/s Union of
India, the apex court has declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right, and no one can take
away our fundamental rights. Anything, be it an invention or technology, etc., will not at all be
useful for people or will never render fruitful results if it violates our constitution or if it is not in
consonance with our law book. The Government needs to specifically keep in mind these factors
and parameters into consideration as it moves forward in the deployment of new technologies7 .
The Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive
Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, published under the Information Technology (IT)
Act, 2000, govern the collection, storage, and use of sensitive personal data, including biometric
data such as facial images8 . Apart from this challenge, there are other challenges while using this
technology, including lack of standardization that makes its function difficult to compare and
recognize and hence leads to incorrect data and information. Also, there are some issues
concerning individuals’ rights and privacy, which might get violated while it is in use, and hence,
critics question individuals’ rights and liberty9 .
CONCLUSION
Law enforcement agencies widely use face recognition technology to help them maintain order
in the world as it is an excellent tool for them in suspecting crimes and preventing them.
However, still, many problems still need to be tackled, and numerous opportunities need to be
explored that are capable of working in highly challenging and complex environments. The
future of this technology must encounter all its challenges, which might include technical, legal,
ethical etc.10 Also, one separate legislation must encounter the challenges and have effective
application. Therefore, this technology poses a great problem in the field of computer vision and
its success depends upon whether it is adequately deployed or not, which means it must be used
appropriately without biases and with transparency so that everything is maintained. Some claim
it to be banned, though it acts as an effective tool for apprehending criminals, but with all the
problems it poses, companies, etc., try to ban it. There is a need to harmonize the benefits and the
drawbacks of this technology to protect the rights of people, which often get violated during its
application, like the right to privacy. Also, its inaccuracy, as it had led to false arrest and racial
bias, does injustice, and if injustice occurs, there is no point in applying this technology. For
instance, the US govt. has acknowledged that surveillance can’t be unlimited, so there must be safeguards to prevent privacy abuses. Therefore, there is a need to focus on the freedom and
rights of people as given by our constitution; hence, they can’t be violated. Any such invention
or technology, if it is against the constitution, must be limited in its use, or safeguards must be
taken to prevent all the problems it poses and to give practical usage without any issues
concerning rights, privacy, ethical issues, technical, etc.
- What is Facial Recognition? Kaspersky, <What is Facial Recognition & How does it work? (kaspersky.com)>,
accessed on 6 September,2023. ↩︎ - Inder, ‘ The Use Of Facial Recognition Technology By Law Enforcement And Its Impact On Civil Liberties’, <The Use
Of Facial Recognition Technology By Law Enforcement And Its Impact On Civil Liberties (legalserviceindia.com)>,
accessed on 6 September 2023. ↩︎ - Face Recognition Development Template (17 December,2023), <Face Recognition Policy Development Template
for Use in Criminal Intelligence and Investigative Activities (ojp.gov)>. ↩︎ - Facial Recognition Use Case Catalog (March 2019), <Value of Corrections Information: Benefits to Justice and
Public Safety (theiacp.org)>. ↩︎ - Face Recognition Development Template (17 December 2023), <Face Recognition Policy Development Template
for Use in Criminal Intelligence and Investigative Activities (ojp.gov)>. ↩︎ - Facial Recognition Use Case Catalog (March 2019), <Value of Corrections Information: Benefits to Justice and
Public Safety (theiacp.org)>. ↩︎ - Pvan Duggal, ‘Facial Recognition in India- A Legal Challenge’, < FACIAL RECOGNITION IN INDIA – SOME LEGAL
CHALLENGES | (cyberlaws.net)>. ↩︎ - Sreejeeta Das, ‘FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY: BALANCING LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONCERNS IN INDIA,’ JLRJS,
< FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY: BALANCING LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONCERNS IN INDIA – JLRJS>. ↩︎ - Inder, ‘The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement and its impact on civil liberties, < The Use Of
Facial Recognition Technology By Law Enforcement And Its Impact On Civil Liberties (legalserviceindia.com)>. ↩︎ - M. Hassaballah Saleh Aly, ‘Face recognition: challenges, achievements, and future directions,’ (1 August 2015), <
Face recognition: challenges, achievements, and future directions – Hassaballah – 2015 – IET Computer Vision –
Wiley Online Library>. ↩︎
