Attorney General Mike DeWine said he should have told Ohioans nearly three months ago that a new system had gone online subjecting their driver's license photos to a facial-recognition program to help identify criminals, says the Toledo Blade. But he steadfastly defended the program as legal, safe, and necessary. “I never thought there would be a big concern about it simply because over half of the states do it,” he said.
Being able to digitally compare Bureau of Motor Vehicle photos to images captured by security cameras dramatically speeds up the process of identifying suspects, he said. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, however, called the program premature and ripe for potential abuse. The revelations came as Americans already question the reach of National Security Agency databases containing Americans' phone and Internet activities.