In 2020, a Reckoning for Law Enforcement and Tech Ethics
Law enforcement technology in 2020 saw some innovation, acquisitions and announcements, but more than anything there was public scrutiny. As footage of a police officer killing an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis in May prompted global protests and news coverage, various communities started calling on everyone involved with police work, including tech companies, to reflect on their responsibilities. Ethical questions that some civil liberties groups had been asking for years hit the public consciousness with new urgency. For the tech industry, questions are about biased algorithms and historical data, and the potential abuses of tools such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence. Public attention forced a reckoning with the present and future implications of police tech, and both private and public organizations signaled an interest in making changes.
After years of growing concern among watchdog groups and industry insiders, facial recognition hit a wall in 2020 as one major company