{"id":96156,"date":"2026-02-20T18:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/894179469"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:33:24","slug":"police-in-wisconsin-want-to-use-facial-recognition-technology-but-face-pushback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/police-in-wisconsin-want-to-use-facial-recognition-technology-but-face-pushback\/","title":{"rendered":"Police in Wisconsin want to use facial recognition technology but face pushback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facial recognition technology has been hailed as a \u201cgame changer<\/a>\u201d for police in its ability to identify crime suspects. The Milwaukee Police Department, like departments around the country, is considering using it. <\/p>\n

But Nadiyah Johnson, CEO and Founder of the Milwaukee software company Jet Constellations and its social impact arm, the Milky Way Tech Hub<\/a>, has serious concerns. <\/p>\n

She told WPR\u2019s \u201cWisconsin Today<\/a>\u201d that these technologies have high rates of false positives for populations that are underrepresented in the software\u2019s databases, like young people, women and people of color.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

News with a little more humanity<\/h2>\n

WPR\u2019s \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe issue is not about functionality as much as the bias risks, due process and public trust,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWith technologies like this, it erodes public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also raised concerns about potential misuse by law enforcement agencies and a need for transparency and guardrails around how officers use it.<\/p>\n

Johnson was one of more than two dozen Milwaukee community members who spoke out about the use of the technology at the city\u2019s Fire and Police Commission meeting on Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee police Chief of Staff Heather Hough told committee members that the department has been using facial recognition technology in a limited capacity dating back to before Police Chief Jeffrey Norman took over in 2021.<\/p>\n

Norman said at the meeting that the technology has only been used as an investigative tool to develop leads for violent felonies, not as the sole basis to make arrests.<\/p>\n

Following the public outcry, he issued a moratorium on his department\u2019s use of the technology until it sets a formal policy.<\/p>\n

Norman declined WPR\u2019s request for an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite our belief that this is useful technology to assist in generating leads for apprehending violent criminals, we recognize that the public trust is far more valuable,\u201d a department spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cMPD will continue to work with the FPC, the council, the mayor and the community to craft a formal policy but will not utilize facial recognition until that process is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Police Association, which is the labor union representing Milwaukee police officers, said in a statement it is \u201cdeeply concerned and disappointed\u201d by the chief\u2019s decision to pause the use of facial recognition technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MPA fully supports thoughtful policy development, transparency, and community input regarding policing practices and emerging technology,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHowever, removing critical tools altogether \u2014 rather than implementing responsible oversight and safeguards \u2014 unnecessarily limits law enforcement\u2019s ability to keep the community safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Police Department isn\u2019t alone in eying the new technology. The Milwaukee County Sheriff\u2019s Office revealed at a community advisory board meeting on Feb. 16 that it signed an intent to enter into a contract with the company Biometrica for facial recognition software, but no formal deal is in place yet.<\/p>\n

University of Wisconsin-Platteville criminal justice professor Patrick Solar is a former Illinois police chief who spent nearly 30 years in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

He told \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d that police department leaders need to balance the benefits for public safety with an individual\u2019s rights to liberty and privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about the safety of all of the citizens in the Milwaukee area, versus the issue with how this software might be misused,\u201d Solar said. \u201cWe can adopt policies, procedures and guidelines to dramatically limit the chance of the software being misused.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thinks the Milwaukee Police Department should craft its standard operating procedures for the technology and let the public review and comment on them again before they go into practice.<\/p>\n

He noted that other police agencies are developing similar policies that Milwaukee and other Wisconsin police departments can adapt for themselves. <\/p>\n

Rise of facial recognition technology<\/h2>\n
\"A
Amazon has considered adding facial recognition technology to its Ring doorbell cameras. AP Photo\/Jessica Hill, File<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Facial recognition technology is becoming more ubiquitous in policing across the country, according to Milwaukee School of Engineering computer science professor and program director Derek Riley.<\/p>\n

He told \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d that there is a large market for the technology, with companies designing and marketing software specifically for police use.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a larger police department or law enforcement force, if I heard they weren\u2019t using it, I would be surprised,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWhen I read about the Milwaukee Police Department, I was a little surprised that this was just coming out. This seemed like something that police departments have been using for quite a while now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over time, facial recognition software has gotten more effective as it trains on larger and larger databases of faces to learn patterns and make better predictions, Riley said.<\/p>\n

Where biases and false positives start to come up is when the technology goes into the real world and encounters a wider variety of variables than it had in its training database.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder perfect conditions, these things operate in this way, but you put them out in the wild, and they can operate differently,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThe risk here is that you trust it in the wild in these uncontrolled conditions the same way that you trust it under controlled conditions. It\u2019s a fallacy that they\u2019ll operate the same in both situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that in many public spaces, people are often unknowingly exposed to cameras that may collect their facial data, from video doorbells to cell phones.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t think the average person should be worried about their face images being used for nefarious purposes, but the prevalence of this technology highlights a need to be intentional and transparent about regulating it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to go into this expecting your face and images are going to be out there. The good news is, you\u2019re just like everybody else,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt opens up all these questionable privacy things where we all have pause. I think that\u2019s where, as a society, we\u2019re still wrestling with this, and I think that\u2019s OK. We just have to do it in the open as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… arm, the Milky Way Tech<\/span> Hub, has serious concerns.\u00c2\u00a0 … regarding policing practices and emerging technology<\/span>,\u00e2\u0080\u009d the statement read. \u00e2\u0080\u009c … Rise of facial recognition technology<\/span> Amazon has considered adding … facial recognition technology<\/span> to its Ring …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}