Tag: Capitol

How law enforcement is using technology to track down US Capitol insurgents

by Lucille Avery on January 21, 2021 in Techology Advancement

Trump supporters scale the walls of the US capitol building

After rioters flooded the US Capitol building on Jan. 6, there was an immediate call for those who overran officers on the scene and swarmed the House and Senate floors, as well as congressional members’ personal offices, to be identified, arrested, and prosecuted. The coordinated law enforcement response to this incident is massive.

As researchers who study criminal justice, we see that law enforcement agencies are accessing large amounts of information via technological sources to investigate the attack on the US Capitol building. High-definition security cameras, facial recognition technology, location

U.S. Lawmakers Aim to Curtail Face Recognition Even as the Technology IDs Capitol Attackers | Technology News

by Lucille Avery on January 19, 2021 in Technology Consultant

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers are moving ahead with efforts to ban facial recognition software even as the technology helps identify supporters of President Donald Trump who ransacked their workplace and forced them to evacuate this month.

Researchers and law enforcement have been running photographs from the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol through facial recognition, which looks for similar faces in databases of mugshots, social media headshots or other images.

“It’s a great tool,” said Michael Sheldon, research associate at the nonprofit Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, whose mission includes protecting democratic institutions.

Sheldon said he provided

The Capitol siege and facial recognition technology.

by Lucille Avery on January 13, 2021 in Technology Consultant

In a recent New Yorker article about the Capitol siege, Ronan Farrow described how investigators used a bevy of online data and facial recognition technology to confirm the identity of Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force Academy graduate and combat veteran from Texas. Brock was photographed inside the Capitol carrying zip ties, presumably to be used to restrain someone. (He claimed to Farrow that he merely picked them up off the floor and forgot about them. Brock was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts.)

Even as they stormed the Capitol, many rioters stopped to pose for photos and

‘Technology’ Can’t Explain Trump Supporters Storming the Capitol

by Lucille Avery on January 9, 2021 in Techology Advancement

Only a few hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of election results, commentators online began pinning the blame for Wednesday’s riot on technology and social media platforms. It is hard to square such claims with the Confederate flags that were proudly waved in the Capitol; America has a long history of right-wing mobs and violence, much of it racist. Most of that earlier violence was much more intense, more widely accepted, and, crucially, legally protected. Technology alone cannot explain that, and yet there are stubborn efforts to insist otherwise.

On the day