In the age of technology-driven convenience, big tech has seemingly made it easier to quickly and accurately identify innocent individuals. However, a recent case serves as a stark reminder of the potential for technology to fail and wreak havoc on the lives of innocent people.
In July 2020, Clarice Sanches, a 30-year-old pregnant woman in Brazil, was wrongfully arrested and jailed for over two weeks due to a faulty facial recognition system. Her arrest was based on a computer-generated match of her face to another person suspected of armed robbery. Despite having testified as a witness in the original case, Sanches was arrested by police utilizing a facial recognition software.
During the subsequent two weeks, Sanches continued to claim her innocence, but was held in jail regardless. According to the Rio de Janeiro state legislature, the local police command responsible for Sanches’ arrest failed to “adequately investigate” the computer-generated match in question. As a result of her wrongful incarceration, Sanches was forced to miss two medical checkups scheduled for her eighth-month pregnancy.
The troubling reality of the situation is that Sanches’ predicament is one of numerous cases of faulty and inaccurate facial recognition technology. In recent years, many countries’ police forces, including the United States, have begun to rely heavily on sophisticated facial recognition systems to aid in apprehending suspects.
But as Sanches’ case so vividly demonstrates, the technology in question can be far from bulletproof, potentially leading to innocent individuals being wrongfully incarcerated.
Given the continued reliance on facial recognition technology by governments around the world, it is clear that clarifying practices and guidelines on how the usage of such software is monitored and assessed is of utmost priority. Although hard evidence can benefit law enforcement efforts, governments must be conscious of the security the rights and safety of their citizens and think twice before relying on any computer-generated match. In the meantime, more must be done to bring errors in facial recognition to light while simultaneously providing restitution to individuals wrongfully harmed by faulty technology. Otherwise, innocent victims like Sanches may face even more serious ramifications.
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