Massachusetts officials defend scans of driver's licenses in hunt for wanted suspects
Police use facial recognition software to regularly scan driver’s license photos in Massachusetts when hunting for suspects, a practice that is also being used elsewhere.
Critics fear the practice being used by a growing number of law enforcement agencies could invade privacy and result in inaccurate matches, the Boston Globe reports.
Last year, local, state and federal agencies submitted 331 images for scanning of state driver’s licenses and other IDs that turned up 101 potential matches.
A report published in October found that driver’s license and ID photos of at least 117 million people nationwide can be searched using facial recognition software. The estimate didn’t include Massachusetts because the report authors weren’t able to verify whether the state allowed access.
Massachusetts officials who defend the practice point to safeguards. Law enforcement requests are case-specific, and the scanning is performed by specially trained staff with the state police and a state motor-vehicles department.
