Facing Facts

A Florida state appellate court ruled last week that Willie Allen Lynch, who was convicted in 2016 for selling crack cocaine, had no right to view photos of other suspects identified by the facial recognition search that led to his arrest. In 2015, undercover agents working with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office photographed a man selling $50 of cocaine. Detectives were unable to identify him, so they decided to turn to the Face Analysis Comparison Examination System, known as FACES, which draws from a database consisting of more than 33 million driver's license and law enforcement photos. The software, which is designed to return multiple potential matches for a given image, named Lynch and four other suspects. Upon further investigation, detectives arrested Lynch for the crime.