At first blush, it may seem like a reasonably good idea. A high tech tool to help the good guys catch the bad guys. Is it as simple as that? Of course not. It is indeed “complicated.”

Many scientific studies have confirmed that the technology behind facial recognition systems is far from perfected. Horror stories abound involving wildly inaccurate matches being made, often at the expense of people of color. That alone should disqualify the technology as a viable option for utilization by law enforcement, security services, and others.

To put it simply, unless it works in a mostly flawless and unbiased way, it just shouldn’t be considered for use by communities such as ours.

One wonders, though, if the technology will ever overcome its limitations. Perhaps in time, as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, the processing of the visual information gathered will be more accurately performed. But is this a given certainty? How can we know for sure?

At this particular time, we have to admit that we just aren’t there yet. This technology can do amazing things, but mistakes are still being made. Is it fair to the certain percentage of people who are subject to false identifications to go ahead with it, just because it seems to work most of the time? It just doesn’t seem so.

Unless and until the technology is proven to be accurate in its operation at a far higher rate, it really has no place in our society. We have been chasing and catching the bad guys for a long time without the benefit of having this thing. We can function quite a while longer without it. Let’s wait and see if we can get it right before plunging headlong into an unknown future that we may come to regret.