Despite community pushback, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and Milwaukee Police Department are considering expanding their use of facial recognition technology (FRT). In exchange for MCSO and MPD access to Biometrica’s facial recognition software, the Nevada tech company would receive around 2.5 million mugshots and other county jail records.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s Equal Rights Commission and the majority of the Milwaukee Common Council have come out in opposition to the use of FRT — citing civil rights concerns including the technology’s disproportionate misidentification of people of color.
Others, like Emilio De Torre from the Milwaukee Turners, have voiced concerns over how data collected from facial recognition technology could be weaponized amid the Trump Administration’s mass deportation efforts…