Cheers, Woody, you’ve helped us catch a thief
POLICE snared a criminal lookalike of Woody Harrelson after feeding a photograph of the Hollywood star into their facial recognition system.
US detectives only had a poor quality CCTV image of the suspect as he stole beer from a shop in New York. But seeing that he resembled the former Cheers actor they used a photo of Harrelson instead, prompting several hits on the police computers.
One of matches led to a man being arrested for petty theft – also called petit larceny. The suspect has not been named.
Civil liberties groups said it raised questions about the use of facial recognition technology.
But Sgt Jessica McRorie of New York Police Department said: ‘No one has ever been arrested on the basis of a facial recognition match alone. As with any lead, further investigation is always needed to develop probable cause to arrest.’