OPINION: Alaskans should be wary of facial recognition technology

In January 2020, Robert Williams, a Black man, pulled into his driveway after work. Then, police emerged. Those police explained that he was being arrested for stealing from a Detroit store, and took him away in a squad car as his daughters looked on. The only problem, though, was that Mr. Williams had not been to the store at issue in years. And he did not commit this crime.

How did this injustice happen? Mr. Williams was apprehended via facial recognition technology. And some of these facial recognition programs are up to 100 times more likely to misidentify people of color, compared with white folks. Indeed, Mr. Williams was not a one-off case. In November 2022, Randal Reid, another Black man, was pulled over in Georgia and arrested for stealing in Louisiana. However, Mr. Reid had not ever been to Louisiana. And he did not commit this crime. This was yet another errant use of facial recognition technology.

There is nothing new about people being wrongfully accused of crimes. Since 1989, more than 2,400 Americans were convicted of felonies, only to later be exonerated. Many of these people were wrongfully imprisoned due to problems with eyewitness testimony. Others fell prey to problems with any number of modern forensic techniques, like inaccuracies in the analysis of hairs or fibers or bloodstains.

However, with the recent uptick in facial recognition programs, it seems that we may be barreling down a new avenue toward injustices. Worse, this technology can also be used to track peaceful protesters, investigate the most minor of offenses or arrest people with no independent evidence of guilt. Even more sinister uses may arise in the future.

We expect these things in totalitarian regimes. Yet we cannot tolerate them here. As much as the government’s use of facial recognition programs should give pause to Americans concerned about racial bias in our criminal justice system, it should give more pause to those concerned about issues like privacy or government overreach.

This all matters to the people of Anchorage, and it matters right now. Without too much publicity, the municipality and the Anchorage Police Department are currently deliberating about when, how and why to use this technology.

If our government should ever use facial recognition technology — and that is a big “if” — it should be saved for very serious exceptions, and it should include lots of guardrails. In the meantime, while we think carefully about those exceptions and guardrails, the Assembly should move forward with banning the use of the technology. Otherwise, the horrific stories of Mr. Williams, or of Mr. Reid, may soon come to our community too.

Nick Feronti is an attorney with the Northern Justice Project.

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