Rashida Tlaib wants police facial recognition software run only by African-Americans
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U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan Democrat among four freshmen congresswomen known as "the Squad," says Detroit police should hire only black people to manage their facial recognition technology because other races "think African Americans all look the same."
Tlaib made the statement to James Craig, the city's police chief, during a tour of his department's Real Time Crime Center, the Detroit News reported. Detroit police invited Tlaib to tour the facility after she criticized the agency for using facial recognition technology to identify suspects in August.
"Analysts need to be African Americans, not people that are not," Tlaib told Craig during the tour, which was "tense," according to The Detroit News.
"It's insulting," Craig told the Detroit News afterward. "We have a diverse group of crime analysts, and what she said -- that non-whites should not work in that capacity because they think all black people look alike -- is a slap in the face to all the men and women in the crime center."
James E. Craig is the head of the Detroit Police Department.
Craig pointed out that implicit-bias training instruction is required for all officers and civilian employees. "To say people should be barred from working somewhere because of their skin color?" he asked. "That's racist."
Tlaib spokesman Denzel McCampbell told the Detroit News that the congresswoman's position is based on studies showing people are better at identifying members of their own race.
"Detroit has a black population of more than 80 percent, so that is where her basis came from and what she was trying to convey when it comes to accurate identification," McCampbell continued.
Facial recognition, widely used in American police departments, has prompted a backlash as it makes the stuff of science fiction a reality.
Amazon, for example, is crafting proposed regulations to govern the technology after enduring widespread criticism over its entry into the field, company CEO Jeff Bezos said last week.