Activists build facial recognition to ID cops who hide their badges

In order to hold police accountable when they try to hide their identities, a growing number of activists are developing facial recognition tools that identify cops, The New York Times reports -- a striking inversion of the way cops tend to use facial recognition on protestors and suspects. Police are hiding their identities while cracking down on protests, in other words, just to be outed by the same invasive technology that they use to surveil the populace. One of the projects was a shower thought for self-taught programmer Christopher Howell. He's identifying cops in Portland, Oregon because they were permitted to cover their names while responding to protests. Portland banned facial recognition for cops and companies, but the NYT reports that Howell's project is permitted because he's an individual working on a passion project.