Some local police have access to an ICE facial recognition app
Some local law enforcement agencies have been granted access to a facial recognition application operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to reporting by South Carolina Public Radio. The extent of the program's reach, which departments are enrolled, and how the tool is being used have not been fully disclosed.
Why this matters: This is not just an immigration story. It is a surveillance story. When local police can run faces through a federal database, the line between community policing and federal immigration enforcement disappears. People who have never been charged with anything can end up in a identification pipeline they do not know exists. Facial recognition is already error-prone, especially for darker-skinned people. Add ICE's mandate to that, and the stakes for a false match are not just embarrassing. They can be life-altering. The public deserves to know which departments have this access and what rules, if any, govern how they use it.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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