Panel: Add new license photos to facial recognition database

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Additional and better quality driver’s license photos would be added to Ohio’s facial recognition database under a task force recommendation released Thursday.

The database, used by law enforcement officers to identify both crime suspects and crime victims, currently includes driver’s license photos taken in 2011 and earlier. The Attorney General’s Facial Recognition Task Force recommended that current Bureau of Motor Vehicle photos be added, which would include photos of people already in the database plus photos of individuals who received a license since 2011. The photos would have to meet an image quality standard.

The report noted that the recommendation was controversial and that the task force tried to balance public safety with people’s privacy.

GOP Attorney General Dave Yost said he’s reviewing all the task force’s recommendations. Driver’s license photos are already considered to be identification, he said.

Drivers “expect them to be used by the police, they expect to show those documents, their driver’s license — including the photograph, to the police,” Yost said.

Thursday’s report also recommended that searches of the database be restricted to trained personnel at the state crime lab.

Last year, amid concern about the use of facial-recognition capabilities, Yost determined the database hadn’t been used improperly.