A Local Police Department Is Running Clearview AI Searches for the FBI
The FBI, which is searching for insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, is working with an unlikely partner: a local police department more than 600 miles away from Washington, D.C.
An officer in Alabama named Jason Webb told the Wall Street Journal that he had used Clearview AI technology on photos captured during the riot and sent matches to the FBI.
The story highlights how access to Clearview’s platform fundamentally changes the capabilities of local law enforcement. Local and state police departments that use facial recognition typically rely on mug shots they’ve collected or even state driver’s license photos, which limits the purview of the technology to their jurisdiction. But Clearview AI allows officers to tap into a national database with no guardrails.
About 2,400 law enforcement agencies are still using Clearview, the company told the Wall Street Journal, meaning this capability isn’t isolated. The FBI itself uses Clearview, among other facial recognition databases, and total usage of the app has spiked 26%, according to the New York Times. To read more about how Clearview reached so many police departments, read some of OneZero’s earlier coverage of Clearview AI.
Read the Wall Street Journal report here:
