A group of senators led by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called on the Department of Justice (DoJ) to conduct better oversight of the use of facial recognition technologies across the DoJ and its component agencies.
In a Jan. 18 letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the group of 17 Democrats and one independent demanded the DoJ explain how the agency’s policies and practices ensure that law enforcement’s efforts to leverage facial recognition technology comply with civil rights protections.
“We are deeply concerned that facial recognition technology may reinforce racial bias in our criminal justice system and contribute to arrests based on faulty evidence. Errors in facial recognition technology can upend the lives of American citizens,” the senators wrote. “Should evidence demonstrate that errors systematically discriminate against communities of color, then funding these technologies could facilitate violations of federal civil rights laws.”
The letter highlights two reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on DoJ’s facial recognition use. A 2020 GAO report on the tool found that DoJ used 11 facial recognition systems and an unspecified number of state and local systems and regularly contracted with non-federal entities for facial recognition services. The letter notes that DoJ also reported plans to expand its use of the tech through fiscal year 2023.
In September 2023, GAO released a report on the use of facial recognition technology at seven component agencies within DoJ and the Department of Homeland Security. GAO found that most law enforcement officers at these agencies were not required to take any training before they were authorized to use the technology.
GAO also found that four agencies did not have guidance or policies specific to the technology that addressed civil rights and civil liberties. GAO recommended that DoJ develop a plan to issue a facial recognition technology policy addressing safeguards for civil rights and civil liberties.
The senators called on the DoJ to respond to eight questions by Feb. 29 – including divulging the practices and policies the department has in place to conduct proper oversight of the deployment of these biometric technologies.
The senators’ letter is part of a fresh wave of scrutiny in Washington of a technology that has triggered national concerns but has never come under Federal regulations.
Most recently, a Jan. 17 report by the National Academies, and sponsored by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, called for swift government action on the use of facial recognition technology – including Federal legislation and an executive order addressing issues related to the technology.
Legislation limiting the use of facial recognition technology has made its way down the halls of Congress, with a recent House bill aiming to limit the ability of law enforcement agencies’ use of the tool and bipartisan legislation in the Senate aiming to strip the Transportation Security Administration of its authority to use the technology as part of its airline passenger screening program.
