As problematic as facial recognition is, Guyana’s law enforcement agencies should not be deprived of its technology

There is a story behind every event, in this connection, the story has to do with how facial recognition is used by Israeli intelligence and defense forces to identify, track and pinpoint the exact location of top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolution Guard. It was facial recognition technology that was used to kill Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, as a result of a drone strike on a car he was in on the Bagdad (Iraq) airport road in January 2020; Senior commander Sayyed Reza Mousavi, a longserving advisor to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council was killed by a drone strike on a car he was in near the Damascus (Syria) airport on December 2023. And Saleh al-Arouri, the Deputy Head of the political bureau of Hamas was killed by a drone strike on a car he was in, in a densely populated area in Southern Lebanon.

In January 2024, Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces and a senior Hezbollah officer was killed when the car he was in was struck by a drone on the border between Lebanon and Israel. Reports indicate that these individuals were on their phones, in moving vehicles and in open spaces where non-interference for tracking is easier. Pinpoint targeting by drones specially equipped for such operations resulted in their deaths. According to an Amnesty International report released in 2023, the Israeli Defense Forces admitted that it uses advanced facial recognition technology to carry out “necessary security and intelligence operations.” The Amnesty Report went on to state that the Israeli military has utilized a camera system called ‘Red Wolf’ since 2022, deploying it at checkpoints as part of a program that “relies on databases consisting exclusively of Palestinian individuals’ data.” A year earlier, the Washington Post reported the IDF was building a digital surveillance database by having soldiers take cellphone photos of Palestinians using smartphone technology called ‘Blue Wolf’ which captures photos of faces and matches them to a mass bank of information.

Here in Guyana, a debate on the use of facial recognition technology as a law enforcement tool has been around for some time. The issue resurfaced at a press conference hosted by VP Jagdeo on January 11, 2024. According to the Vice President, “The government is working on a biometric project that will allow the authorities to use facial recognition software to track people with criminal records and pinpoint their exact location at any given time.” In its January 15, 2024 edition, S/N published an editorial on ‘Facial Recognition.’ The editorial sought to situate the use of facial recognition technology in a Guyanese context. Tangentially, and for inexplicable reasons, the editorial referenced the experiences of the UK and USA, but not of Israel’s, whose advances and utilization of facial recognition software can, in no way, be comparable to what is being contemplated for use in Guyana.

The S/N editorial did not miss the opportunity to take a swipe at government. It claimed that; ‘Such a system under the control of this government should and will evoke concern about the invasion of privacy, misuse of information and the security of databases.’ The editorial took a further dig at government stating; ‘Facial recognition is riddled with all sorts of problems that this governmentwhich has a propensity for control and ignoring the opposition-will be unable to

satisfactorily handle.’ Has S/N interpreted Guyana’s “biometric project” to mean that either ‘Red Wolf’ or ‘Blue Wolf’ technology is coming to Guyana? In any event, Guyana’s law enforcement agencies should not be deprived of using facial recognition technology appropriate to our domestic laws and national peculiarities.