A civil rights group has filed suit against the New York Corrections Department for not turning over records on how it uses facial recognition technology on visitors at state lockups, new court papers show.
The New York Civil Liberties Union says it requested records from the Department of Correction and Communities Supervision on Sept. 23, saying the public has the “right to know basic facts” about how the “notoriously inaccurate and prone to error technology is being used at lockups, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed Wednesday.
But on Jan. 29, the NYCLU’s request — made under New York’s Freedom of Information Law — was denied by the DOCCS for a generic series of exemptions for FOIL requests, the suit claims. The NYCLU’s appeal of that decision was also denied on March 1.
In the suit, the advocacy group warned about drawbacks of facial recognition technology, saying it “inevitably will misidentify visitors as unwelcome and deny visitation.” It added that “the consequences may be more dire” if the facial recognition system misidentifies someone as having an outstanding warrant or other justice system involvement and wrongfully detains them as a result.
The group says they’ve heard from people who were turned away “based on utilization of face recognition technology to screen visitors,” the suit claims.
But there is nothing in the DOCCS directives, handbook or on the visitor webpage that mentions the use of facial recognition technology and the possibility of being denied visitation because of it, the suit says.
The NYCLU is asking a judge to force the agency to turn over the records.
The DOCCS did not immediately return a request for comment.