DOI: 10.53136/97912218211164
Pages: 31-36
Publication date: November 2025
Publisher: Aracne
SSD:
IUS/10
ABSTRACT What if we evaluated the American use of FRT in policing as if it were an intentionally designed but unchecked experiment? What features and prescriptions would such a design entail? Recasting some of the problems identified in FRT use by police as features of an experimental approach helps us better understand them as predictable consequences of an unregulated surveillance technology. Those insights can clarify not just the discussion around FRT use by police in the United States, but other experimental uses of automated technologies with similarly coercive and harmful aspects as well.
KEYWORDS Automated decision-making – Law Enforcement – Facial Recognition Technology – Artificial Intelligence
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. – 2. Features of the American Policing FRT Experiment. – 2.1. Exploit the American
political structure. – 2.2. Encourage the private market’s influence. – 2.3. Amplify Human Discretion. – 2.4. Ignore
Evaluation Metrics. – 2.5. Burden vulnerable populations disproportionately. – 3. FRT Police Use: An Unchecked
Experiment. – 4. Conclusion
