• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Monday, May 19, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Current Events

117 Million Americans Are In Police Facial Recognition Databases – And Don’t Even Know It

by Off The Grid News Staff
in Current Events
Print Print
117 Million Americans Are In Police Facial Recognition Databases – And Don’t Know It

Photographer: Kevin Case

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article
117 Million Americans Are In Police Facial Recognition Databases – And Don’t Know It
Photographer: Kevin Case

WASHINGTON — The faces of 117 million Americans — around one-third of the nation’s population — are on file in law enforcement databases, used regularly by facial recognition software to check against images of suspected criminals.

And most Americans don’t even know it.

The data is part of a new report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law School.

“Law enforcement face recognition is unregulated and in many instances out of control,” according to the report, dubbed “The Perpetual Line-Up.”

Researchers at Georgetown made 100 records requests to police departments as part of what the report called “the most comprehensive survey to date of law enforcement face recognition.” The investigation lasted a full year.

Facial or face recognition software consists of sophisticated algorithms that carefully examine the faces within photos, supposedly spotting the targeted person out of millions of possibilities.

Discover How To Become Invisible In Today’s Surveillance State!

What the report discovered was both shocking and disturbing. At least 26 states – and perhaps as many as 30 – allow law enforcement to “run or request searches against their databases of driver’s license and ID photos.” Roughly one in two American adults had his or her ID photo searched this way.

Some technology lets officers in the field use face recognition to search databases of driver’s license photos.

The practice, the report said, is largely unregulated.

“No state has passed a law comprehensively regulating police face recognition. We are not aware of any agency that requires warrants for searches or limits them to serious crimes,” the report said

117 Million Americans Are In Police Facial Recognition Databases – And Don’t Know It
Image source: Pixabay.com

The lack of regulation on the practice has “consequences,” the report said.

“The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office system runs 8,000 monthly searches on the faces of seven million Florida drivers—without requiring that officers have even a reasonable suspicion before running a search,” the report said.

And it could get worse. Major police departments, the report said, are “exploring real-time face recognition on live surveillance camera video” which would allow police to “continuously scan the faces of pedestrians walking by a street surveillance camera.”

One problem with facial recognition software, the report said, is that it could stifle free speech.

“There is also a history of FBI and police surveillance of civil rights protests,” the report said. “Of the 52 agencies that we found to use (or have used) face recognition, we found only one, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, whose face recognition use policy expressly prohibits its officers from using face recognition to track individuals engaging in political, religious, or other protected free speech.”

Facial recognition also is not as accurate as fingerprinting. One major software company boasts a 95 percent accuracy rate but “disclaims liability for failing to meet that threshold.”

Regulation, the report said, is needed.

“Such laws should require the FBI or the police to have a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct prior to a face recognition search,” the report said. “… Mug shots, not driver’s license and ID photos, should be the default photo databases for face recognition, and they should be periodically scrubbed to eliminate the innocent. Except for identity theft and fraud cases, searches of license and ID photos should require a court order issued upon a showing of probable cause.”

What is your reaction? Share it in the section below:

You’re Being Watched: 7 Sneaky Ways The Government Is Tracking Your Every Move. Read More Here.

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

How U.S. Tariffs Reshape China’s Top 20 Raw Supplement Imports

How U.S. Tariffs Reshape China’s Top 20 Raw Supplement Imports

by Bill Heid

The U.S.-China trade war has escalated to a critical phase in 2025, with tariffs on Chinese imports reaching unprecedented levels,...

Doomsday Dominoes: What Happens When Nukes Are Launched In India Or Pakistan

Doomsday Dominoes: What Happens When Nukes Are Launched In India Or Pakistan

by Bill Heid

Health, Environmental, and Economic Impacts of a Nuclear War Between India and Pakistan The specter of nuclear conflict remains one...

The Long…  Bloody History of India and Pakistan’s Endless Conflict

The Long… Bloody History of India and Pakistan’s Endless Conflict

by Bill Heid

A Nation Born in Bloodshed The roots of the ongoing hostility between India and Pakistan officially stretch back to 1947,...

Next Post
The Pilgrims: What The History Books Often Get Wrong

The Pilgrims: What The History Books Often Get Wrong

Please login to join discussion

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

The City Slicker’s Guide To Bushcraft On A Budget: Your Knife Is Your Life (Part 2)

The City Slicker’s Guide To Bushcraft On A Budget: Your Knife Is Your Life (Part 2)

Off-Grid Living In A 150-Square-Foot Tiny Home

Off-Grid Living In A 150-Square-Foot Tiny Home

National ID Card System Finally Takes Effect

National ID Card System Finally Takes Effect

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.