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Comment by l9k | Hacker News Reader

The local cop will not use AWS APIs by himself just like that, connecting it to the surveillance cameras and mugshot databases.

Hopefully, and I think this scandal will help, the engineering departments/contractors for the government will develop software that is appropriately configured for each case.

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I don’t think a cop or juror is going to look at the confidence score and accurately understand the reasonable doubt that a classification is incorrect.

The cops won't just consume the API. Software developed for the specific task will.

What I imagine is this: 1. The cop uploads a picture of the suspect taken from camera surveillance at crime scene 2. Software displays the mugshots (and names) of PROBABLE matches from the database with confidence %, color coding according to confidence level, and notice of proper use 3. Cop compares man/woman's picture with what's displayed 4. Investigation continues if necessary

Face recognition is not being touted being as accurate as DNA testing or fingerprints, so why pretend it is anything but a fuzzy ranking by similarity? Many forensic techniques generate probabilistic results.

Hah. You clearly haven't worked with any government agencies or their contractors. There will be mistakes, and it won't be just a few. The public will have very little action towards even validating whether they're configured properly. It's gonna be a shit show.

What’s an appropriate configuration for your neighborhood?

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