New York City’s bans on facial-recognition tech have got to go. The charges that were dropped against Zuhdi Ahmed prove that.
Ahmed was a pro-Palestinian protester accused of throwing a rock at a pro-Israel counter-demonstrator. Yet a judge ruled that he can’t be charged because cops used prohibited AI facial-recognition tech (a tip provided by a FDNY fire marshal in response to a Crimestoppers post) to nail him.
Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with such tools in the pursuit of justice.
In this case, FDNY fire investigators did what they always do — they shared crimefighting information with their colleagues.
Yet Judge Valentina “Let-’em-go” Morales deemed that detectives ran afoul of departmental guidelines in using information obtained by a city fire marshal who was investigating the burning of an Israeli flag at the protest and turned up publicly sourced photos of Ahmed at high school social events.