Law-enforcement agencies across America are getting ready to embrace hand-held facial-recognition software that can grab a picture of a persons face from five feet away.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the device is attached to an iPhone that will search a database and can be held six inches from a subjects face to do a retinal scan. Topping off its thorough identification, the screen will also take fingerprints.
Manufacturer BI2 will deliver1,000 of the devices to 40 law-enforcement agencies beginning in September.
Debate centers on whether use of the device constitutes an illegal search. Police contend that it's just a photograph, but some aren't convinced:
[O]nce a law-enforcement officer stops or detains someone, a different standard might apply, experts say. The Supreme Court has ruled that there must be "reasonable suspicion" to force individuals to be fingerprinted. Because face- and iris-recognition technology hasn't been put to a similar legal test, it remains "a gray area of the law," says Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University with an expertise in search-and-seizure law. "A warrant might be required to force someone to open their eyes."
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