MTA’s Initial Foray Into Facial Recognition at High Speed Is a Bust

From the if-at-first-you-don’t-succeed-waste-more-taxpayer-money dept., Paul Berger reports:

First attempts last year to record and identify faces of drivers as they zip along the highway at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge have failed, according to an internal Metropolitan Transportation Authority email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

And they didn’t just fail. They failed spectacularly. Discussing the results, Berger reports:

But the MTA email, from November last year, says that the “initial period for the proof of concept testing at the RFK for facial recognition has been completed and failed with no faces (0%) being detected within acceptable parameters.” That’s no faces accurately identified. Oops. Despite the failure, more cameras are going to be positioned on other bridges and tunnels, according to a spokesperson.