Driver’s License Photo as Crime-Fighting Tool?

mug shot against driver's license photo

The driver’s license is becoming an effective tool for crime-fighting, thanks to the continuing improvements on facial recognition technology.

Three specialists who work for the Massachusetts motor vehicles department recently tested their method by running a mug shot from the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” – just to try it for size – against the state’s database of nine million digital driver’s license photographs. Voila! They found a match for a man wanted on rape charges, using a different name on his driver’s license.

At least six other states have or are working on similar enormous databases of driver’s license photographs. Coupled with increasingly accurate facial-recognition technology, the databases may soon become a radical innovation in law enforcement.

[Via: NYTimes.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.