The Department of Homeland Security is moving to give some local police departments access to a facial recognition app currently used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a step that could put powerful biometric tools in the hands of agencies well beyond the federal government.
NPR reported the plans Thursday, June 19. DHS hasn’t said which departments would receive access, how many agencies are being considered, or what restrictions — if any — would govern local use of the technology.
The move comes as questions about facial recognition in law enforcement remain unsettled. Civil liberties groups have long argued that the technology produces error rates high enough to risk wrongful stops and arrests, particularly for people of color. Whether DHS’s rollout will include accuracy standards or audit requirements isn’t clear from what the agency has disclosed so far.
Local departments in North Carolina and across the country have taken varied approaches to facial recognition — some banning it outright, others using it without formal policy. Bringing ICE’s system into that patchwork raises questions about oversight that no federal official has publicly answered yet.
Separately, planned diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran in Switzerland were called off, NPR also reported Thursday. No explanation for the cancellation was immediately available, and no new date has been set.
Reporting by NPR. Read the original report.
