The Detroit Police Department uses facial recognition technology to match criminals on surveillance video with mug shots to make arrests and help put a dent in the city’s shockingly high crime rate. Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib however says that facial recognition is racist because she believes that black men caught on camera committing crimes shouldn’t be arrested for some reason.
The Detroit News reports:
The City Council approved a contract that will upgrade controversial facial recognition software used by police to fight crime in the nation’s most violent city despite calls to ban the technology opponents argue is “racist.”
The measure — to cover costs associated with upgrades and maintenance — was approved Tuesday by a 6-3 vote following a protest, lengthy discussion among council members and an hour of public comment from residents and activists.
The nearly $200,000 contract with South Carolina-based DataWorks Plus will fund software maintenance and support for the city’s facial recognition equipment.
We’ll get to that “racist” thing in a second, but first, here’s how the Detroit PD uses facial recognition technology to fight crime:
The Detroit police administration said the software is a tool to speed up investigations and its face-matching capability is paired with a digital book of mug shots. Once a potential hit is identified, it’s then up to detectives to investigate further.
Detroit Police Capt. Aric Tosqui said Tuesday the technology has been used 106 times this calendar year and made 64 matches. It assisted in 12 arrests.
“The efficiency that we gain from using facial recognition is tremendous. A lot of these cases would just be a whodunit,” said Detroit Deputy Chief Marlon Wilson.
Now on to the “racist” aspects of this technology:
Council President Brenda Jones, Pro Tem Mary Sheffield and member Raquel Castaneda-Lopez voted no on Tuesday.
Castaneda-Lopez said she couldn’t support the software that she contends has “implicit bias.” In using it, she said, “we compromise people being discriminated against … for the sake of efficiency.”
It may be implicitly biased against criminals, but “scumbag” isn’t a race.
Racial grievance warriors also think facial recognition is racist:
In tandem with Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Detroit Will Breathe coalition led a 10-car caravan protest over facial recognition through the city’s East English Village neighborhood.
Organizers drove past Councilman Andre Spivey’s home in the neighborhood chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “F— facial recognition,”…
They really have a way with words, don’t they?
Plus there’s Loon Squad member Rashida Tlaib:
Facial recognition technology is racist. https://t.co/0WuCPQOVEv
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) December 1, 2020
“I cannot believe that some of the leaders of a majority Black city, Detroit, want to continue to use a racist facial recognition technology,” Tlaib added.
All this does is help the Detroit PD arrest violent criminals, so how is it racist? As far as I can tell, there’s leftist rule that everything is racist and since facial recognition technology is a thing, it is therefore racist.
These kooks are probably pitching a fit because most to all people arrested in Detroit are black men. If the facial recognition technology assists in arresting black men for crimes they have committed, liberal logic says it must be racist. Under that same line of lunacy, surveillance cameras, and eye witnesses are racist too.
