'Chicago P.D.' Season 7 Episode 6 rightly showed the implicit racial bias in the facial recognition software, but ultimately failed the viewers
In last week's episode of 'Chicago P.D.', a new facial recognition software is used by the Intelligence Unit to nab the culprit of the week. For Detective Jay Halstead, who first reached the crime scene and saw the bodies of two young boys shot in the head, the case proved to be something he was determined to see through, no matter the consequences.
The software spits out a name and Halstead interrogates the man who insists he is innocent, but Halstead puts him in county jail to elicit a confession from him. Later, the man is beaten up brutally in jail and is put in a medical coma. By the time Halstead realizes that he is, in fact, innocent, the man dies from his injuries.
Hank Voight and Interim Superindentent Jason Crawford agree that revealing their mistake will lead the people to ask for their "heads on pikes", and the former leaks the name of the culprit to the relative of one of the dead boys and allows him to seek his own revenge. Crawford then gives a press conference, and instead of coming clean, leads the public to believe that the innocent man was the culprit after all.
The episode rightfully showed how facial recognition software has been known to make mistakes in real life, which has proven to be more inaccurate, the darker the person is. However, when it came to the ending, viewers were left with a sour taste. This might be the same in real life as well, as law enforcement agencies have been less than forthcoming about their use of facial recognition systems.
According to Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology, both the New York and Los Angeles police departments have denied record requests about their use of facial recognition software. In 2016, the real Chicago Police Department said that it doesn't use the technology in real-time situations, though facial recognition company DataWorks Plus had stated in 2013 that the city had purchased a facial recognition system.
While the show did stick to accuracy, we hope that Rick Eid, the showrunner, will show the implications of such a grave error and the consequences of burying the truth. Were it so, the NBC procedural drama can try and effect some change in the way that it is perceived by its viewers.
'Chicago P.D.' airs on NBC on Wednesday nights.