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Can you commit a crime and go on the run for years without being caught today? This is what the experts say…
Last week, I watched a movie called “The Old Man & the Gun”, based on the true story of Forrest Tucker, a 60-year man who escaped from prison and conducted some 60 bank robberies while on the run for more than three years before being caught. This was back in 1980.
I started to wonder if all that would still be possible today, given all the CCTV and facial recognition software in use. Could anyone still go on the run for so long without being caught?
1.8 billion faces in three seconds
I had a client who is one of the top three leaders in facial recognition technology in China. Their software reportedly helped to identify and capture hundreds of criminals in just three years, including a murder suspect who had been on the run for 16 years.
There are an estimated 176 million CCTV cameras in China today, and my client’s software claims to be able to screen 1.8 billion pictures in three seconds. They also claimed to be able to handle aging or partially hidden faces with their face matching algorithms.
Out of intellectual curiosity I started to wonder if there was a reliable way to beat facial recognition technology.
To my surprise this was what I found…
Star Wars had the solution?
The solutions found on the internet ranged from the serious to the hilarious. Among the latter there was a dude who proposed wearing a Darth Vader mask or tilting your head at a 15 degree angle all the time when you are walking on the streets.
Not so practical.
Perhaps a method that would draw less attention would be wearing a hoodie like the Jedi’s in Star Wars. But be warned, many countries have laws against wearing masks or clothing that intentionally covers your face. (In the U.S. such laws date back to fighting the Ku Klux Klan…)
