Facial Recognition Technology in Public Housing Prompts Backlash

This year in Detroit, crews working for the city's public housing authority cut down a row of bushy trees that had shaded the entryways to two public housing units known as Sheridan I and II. Their aim: to give newly installed security cameras an unobstructed view of the hulking, gray edifices, so round-the-clock video footage could be made available to the Detroit Police Department and its new facial recognition software whenever the Detroit Public Housing Commission files a police report. "I think that police departments won't make frivolous claims based solely on technology," said Sandra Henriquez, the commission's executive director. She added, "I think that they will use the technology as one tool that they use in bringing people into the criminal justice system." To critics of the widening reach of facial recognition software, such assurances are likely to ring hollow.