NYPD uses celebrity photos to track down criminals
By: Graham Rayman, New York Daily News
NEW YORK — When they are stumped for quality images of possible crime suspects, the NYPD sometimes uses celebrity photos to find a match in its facial recognition system, a new report reveals.
Actor Woody Harrelson’s image was used to try to find a match to a man with similar features who stole beer from a pharmacy on April 28, 2017, according to a study by the Georgetown University Center of Privacy and Technology released Thursday.
The thief was caught on store surveillance video, but the images were too blurry to match. A detective decided the suspect looked like Harrelson, so they ran his photo through the database. In another instance, the NYPD used a picture of a New York Knicks player to identify a man wanted for assault in Brooklyn.
