Axon Proposes Adding Facial Recognition to US Police Body Cameras

The company Axon has proposed adding facial recognition technology to police body cameras in the United States, according to The Washington Post. Axon’s founder and CEO, Rick Smith, explained that body cameras equipped with facial recognition would help officers quickly identify suspects in extreme situations and prevent terrorist attacks. He acknowledged that this feature could allow police to overstep their authority and invade citizens’ privacy, but emphasized that the expected safety benefits outweigh the potential risks. “We can’t allow police in the 2020s to have technology from the 1990s,” Smith said at a conference focused on the ethical issues of artificial intelligence.

Immediately after Smith’s speech, about 40 American civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), wrote an open letter condemning Axon’s proposal. “Real-time facial recognition will restrict citizens’ constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, especially in connection with political protests,” the letter stated.

Axon clarified that it is not currently developing facial recognition systems for body cameras, but is “actively exploring” the technology.

In addition to body cameras, Axon manufactures police tasers. The company was previously known as Taser, but last year adopted the new name Axon, after its cloud platform that stores 20 million gigabytes of police body camera footage. Previously, the company had proposed equipping police drones with tasers, but this idea did not receive support from authorities or the public.