Transcript

1.14.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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January fourteenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Ready is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Findy Fraser. Today's front page
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headlines from The Washington Post are prosecutor defends his hunter,
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Biden work in report. Special counsel rejects President's claim of
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political motivations. Our next headline, police ignore standards after facial
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recognition matches. Confident in unproven artificial intelligence technology, investigators sometimes
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skip steps. At least eight Americans have been wrong to arrested.
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Next a tough test for Pentagon nominee hexceth critics to
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face off to day hearing will scrutinize his conduct qualifications.
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Our next headline reading Biden touts his record on foreign relations.
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He truments alliances in a rebuke to Trump's more insular policies.
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Next chum cling to Holmes Inquire's wreckage and our final
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headlines from today's front page. Major oversight scene in New
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Orleans truck attack, police car, poorly located, key barrier not raised.
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Post analysis shows now let's turn to our first item,
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entitled prosecutor defends his Hunter Biden work in report, Special
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Council rejects President's claim of political motivations by Perry Stein
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and Matt Weiser. The Special Council who prosecuted Joe Biden's
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son Hunter defended his investigation in a report released Monday,
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rebudding claims by the President and his family that the
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cases were politically motivated. The report is the final round
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of a bitter fight between the outgoing president and his
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administration's Justice Department, which inherited the investigation of Hunter Biden
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after Donald Trump's first term in the White House and
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brought two indictments against him in twenty twenty three. The
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younger Biden was convicted on federal gun charges at a
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jury trial in June and pleaded guilty to tax charges
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in September. He was pardoned by his father in December.
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Special Council David Wise, who initially oversaw the probe as
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the u S Attorney for Delaware and received Special Council
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status in twenty twenty three, so he had clear authority
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to bring charges outside his own state, said the President's
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criticism of the investigation. Quote undermines the public's confidence in
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our criminal justice system. He also sharply denounced the elder
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Biden for condemning the Justice Department's investigation when he issued
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the sweeping pardon of his son. Other presidents have pardoned
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family members, but in doing so, none have taken the
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occasion as an opportunity to mallow kind the public servants
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at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.
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The Special Counsel report says. The White House did not
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immediately respond to a request for comment on the report,
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which Attorney General Merrick Garland submitted to Congress on Monday
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afternoon before releasing it to the public. In a statement,
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Hunter Biden's lawyer Abe Lowell criticized Wise for a failed
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plea agreement in twenty twenty three and for pursuing allegations
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about Hunter Biden by an informant that later proved false
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and led to additional charges against the informant. What is
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clear from this report is that the investigation into Hunter
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Biden is a cautionary tale of the abuse of prosecutorial power.
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Lowell said Hunter Biden and those around him were long
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skeptical of Wise and his team, casting them as heavy
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handed and unfair to the president's son, a favorite target
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of Congressional Republicans and Trump. For much of his presidency,
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Joe Biden avoided such rhetoric, attempting to make good on
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a vow to respect Justice Department independent, but more recently,
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when issuing the pardon, he adopted the language of his
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son's legal team in bluntly saying that he had been
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wrongly prosecuted. The long running investigation and the two indictments
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it yielded revealed an ugly and personal chapter in the
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Biden family, during which Hunter was in the throes of
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a diction after his brother, Beaux died of brain cancer
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in twenty fifteen. Weiss used the report to defend the
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charges he brought, which included lawing on a gun purchase
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form and failing to pay taxes. When assessing whether to
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charge some of the tax crimes, why said, prosecutors often
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consider whether doing so would deter people from evading taxes
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in the future. He said Biden failed to pay at
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least one point four million dollars in federal taxes from
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twenty sixteen through twenty nineteen, a period that included time
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when he was sober and knew that what he was
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doing was wrong. Mister Biden failed to timely file and
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pay his taxes over a four year period, and then,
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after becoming sober, he chose to file false returns to
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evade payment of taxes he owed. Weis wrote in report,
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I concluded that the prospect of criminal penalties was necessary
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to accomplish the goals of both specific and general deterrence
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in this case. In reference to the gun charges, Why said,
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members of the public are regularly prosecuted for similar offenses.
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Biden was charged with lying about his drug use ot
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a federal form when purchasing a firearm, and then illegally
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owning that firearm. While those charges are usually brought in
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connection with more serious violations, not as standalone counts, Why said,
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they are among the most frequently charged of the eighty
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six different federal gun crimes listed in a Justice Department analysis.
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In addition to prosecuting Biden, Weiss also secured the conviction
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Alexander Smirnoff, an FBI informant who pleaded guilty last month
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to line to agents when falsely claiming a bribery scheme
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involving a president, his son, and executives of the Ukrainian
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gas company Barisma Spanoff was sentenced Wednesday to six years
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in prison for that offense and additional tax charges brought
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by Weiss's office. The twenty seven page Special Council Report,
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plus a lengthy appendix, contained few details not previously revealed
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in courtrooms and filings. It did not discuss whether Weiss's
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team had wanted to pursue any additional charges as part
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of its investigation. When Biden pardoned his son, he removed
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any punishment for the conviction and said the younger Biden
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could not be prosecuted for any potential crimes that occurred
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during the eleven year period. Why said in the report
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that it would therefore be inappropriate for him to discuss
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whether additional charges were warranted. Prosecutors had previously indicated in
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court that they investigated Biden for potentially violating the Foreign
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Agent's Registration Act in his business dealings abroad. The report
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does not include any details about the finding for that
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investigation and why they decided not to charge him. Instead,
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Why spent a large portion of the report defending the
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independence of his investigation and slamming the Biden family for
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criticizing it. He said he and his team remained impervious
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to political influence at all times, noting that no judge
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has sided with Hunter Biden's lawyers in their attempts to
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get the charges dismissed on the basis of selective prosecution.
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At times, the report seemed to directly rebut comments a
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present maid and pardoning Hunter, in which he said, I
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have watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted. I
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recognize that reasonable minds may differ about the correctness of
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my decisions, Weiss wrote. What should not be questioned, however,
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is that these decisions were duly considered and made in
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good faith with fidelity to the principles of federal prosecution.
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Far from selective, these prosecutions were the embodiment of the
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equal application of justice. No matter who you are or
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what your last name is, you are subject to the
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same laws as every one else in the United States.
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Wisse also objected in his report to the arguments from
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Hunter Biden's defense team that most of the crimes occurred
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while he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
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Nor could mister Biden's conduct be explained away by his
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drug use. Most glaringly, mister Biden filed his false twenty
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eighteen return, in which he deliberately under reported his income
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to lower his tax liability, in February twenty twenty, approximately
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eight months after he had regained his sobriety. He wrote,
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the special counsel pointed to previous statements from the White
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House expressing confidence in an independent justice department, as well
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as claims from Biden after his son was convicted that
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he would not issue a pardon and would abide by
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the jury's decision. These remarks stand in stark contrast to
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the President's recent assertion that the jury's verdict and mister
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Biden's admission of guilt accounted to a miscarriage of justice.
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Weiss wrote, Politicians attack the decisions of career prosecutors as
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politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of the case,
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undermine the public's competence in our criminal justice system. Wise, added,
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the President's statements unfairly impuny integrity not only of Department
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of Justice personnel, but all of the public servants making
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these difficult decisions in good faith. Our next item from
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today's front page is entitled police ignore standards after facial
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recognition matches. Confident in unproven artificial intelligence technology, investigators sometimes
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gift steps. At least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested
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by Douglas macmillan, David o'valley, and Aaron Schaeffer from Pagdale, Missouri,
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after two men brutally assaulted a security guard on a
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desolate train platform on the outskirts of Saint Louis County.
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Transit Police detective Matthew Chute struggled to identify the culprit.
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He studied grainy surveillance videos, canvassed homeless shelters, and repeatedly
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called the victim of the attack, who said he remembered
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almost nothing because of a brain injury from the beating.
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Months later, they tried one more option. Shoot uploaded a
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still image from the blurry video of the incident to
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a facial recognition program, which uses artificial intelligence to scour
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the mudshot of hundreds of thousands of people arrested in
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the Saint Louis area. Despite the poor quality of the image,
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the software spat out the names and photos of several
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people deemed to resemble one of the attackers, whose face
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was hooded by a winter coat and partially obscured by
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a surgical mask. Though the city's special recognition policy warns
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officers that the results of the technology are non signed
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and should not be used as a sole basis for
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any decision. Shoote proceeded to build a case against one
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of the AI generated results, Christopher Gatlin, a twenty nine
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year old father of four who had no apparent ties
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to the crime scene nor a history of violent offenses,
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as Shute would later acknowledge, arrested and jailed for crime
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he says he didn't commit. It would take Aatlin more
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than two years to clear his name. A Washington Post
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investigation into police used that facial recognition software found that
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law enforcement agencies across the nation are using the artificial
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intelligence tools in a way they were never intended to
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be used as a shortcut to finding an arresting suspect
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without other evidence. Most police departments are not required to
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report that they used facial recognition, and few keep records
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of their use of the technology. The Post reviewed documents
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from twenty three police departments where detailed records about facial
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recognition use are available, and found that fifteen departments spending
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twelve states, arrested suspects identified through AI matches without any
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independent evidence connecting them to the crime, in most cases,
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contradicting their own internal policy requiring officers to corroborate all
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leads found through AI. Some law enforcement officers using the
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technology appear to abandon traditional policing standards and treat software
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suggestions as facts. The Post found one police report referred
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to an uncorroborated AI result as a quote one hundred
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percent match. Another said police use the software to immediately
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and unquestionably identify a suspected seed. Gatlin is one of
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at least eight people wrongfully arrested in the United States
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after being identified through facial recognition. Six cases were previously
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reported in media outsutlets. Two wrongful arrests, Gatland and Jason Brownew,
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a Miami resident, have not been previously reported. All of
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the cases were eventually dismissed. Police probably could have eliminated
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most of the people as suspect before their arrest through
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basic police work such as checking alibis, comparing tattoos, or,
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in one case, following DNA and fingerprint evidence left at
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the scene. What went wrong in eight known cases of
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wrongful arrests involving facial recognition. Police failed to take one
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or more basic investigated steps. In six cases, police failed
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to check alibis. Kuran Reed was arrested for allegedly stealing
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purses from a Louisiana store. Even though he repeatedly told
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the officers who arrested him in his hometown of Atlanta
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that he'd never been to the state, investigators never saw
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proof he was at work Georgia on the day the
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crime was committed. In two cases, police ignored evidence that
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contradicted their theory. Police in Woodbridge, New Jersey, were so
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intent on building a case against the Jare park A
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robbery suspect that they cast aside DNA and fingerprint evidence
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pointing to another potential suspect. In five cases, police failed
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to collect key pieces of evidence. Jason Arnow spent three
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days behind bars after he was accused of casing a
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fraudulent thirty six thousand dollars check out of Miami Bank.
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Police had relied on an image of the wrong person
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and failed to check Barnau's bank accounts, His defense lawyers said.
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In three cases, police ignored suspects physical characteristics. Portia Woodruff
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was seven months pregnant at the time of the carjacking,
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which Detroit police accused her of committee She was arrested
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even though nothing in the surveillance images or eye with
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his statements indicated the involvement of a pregnant woman. In
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six cases, police relied on problematic witness statements. After Detroit
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police used facial recognition to identify Robert Williams as a
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suspect in a watch theft at a high end store,
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his identity was confirmed by a security person who was
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not present for the crime. These examples of questionable police
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work gleaned through the posts analysis of rarely seeing internal
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software records, arrest reports, court records, and interviews with police, prosecutors,
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and defense lawyers are probably a small sample of the problem.
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The total number of false arrests fueled by AI matches
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is impossible to know because police and prosecutors rarely tell
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the public when they have used these tools, and in
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all but seven states, no laws explicitly require it to
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be disclosed. Hundreds of police departments in Michigan and Florida
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have the ability to run images through statewide facial recognition programs,
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but the number that do so is unknown. One leading
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maker of facial recognition software Clearview AI has said in
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a pitch to potential investors that three thousand, one hundred
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police departments use its tools, more than one six of
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all U S law enforcement agencies. The company does not
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publicly identify most of its customers. Through a review of
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government contracts, media reports, and public records requests, the Post
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identified seventy five departments that used facial recognition, forty of
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which shared records on cases in which it led to arrests.
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Of those, seventeen failed to provide enough detail to discern
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whether officers made an attempt to corroborate AI matches. Among
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the remaining twenty three agencies, the Post found that nearly
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two thirds had arrested suspects identified through AI matches without
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independent evidence. Most of the departments declined to answer questions
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about their use at AI. Some denied that officers arrested
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people based on a I alone, but declined to provide
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details or document to support these claims. Others said that
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officers can determine if the person they see in two
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or more photos is the same. In Florence, Kentucky, document
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show police arrested people identified by facial recognition without independent
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corroboration in four cases, one pleaded guilty to theft. The
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other three cases are still pending. The local prosecutor, Louis Kelly,
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said he trust officers to use their judgment in identifying suspects,
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including those found with AI. We have to allow officers
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to use common sense and available method, Kelly said in
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an email. A new sense of urgency. On August ninth,
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twenty twenty one, eight months after the page Dale train
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station issaught, three uniformed officers appeared in the lobby of
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the apartment building of the injured security guard, Michael Feldman,
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with an insense of urgency about solving the case. The
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officers brought along our photo line up with images of
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six men, including Gatland. Feldn told them he still remembered
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very little about it because of the brain injury he suffered.
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It felt like I was being hornered in this situation.
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I didn't want to be in, Feldn, sixty two, said
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in a recent interview. I felt like I didn't remember
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what he looked like. Following the officer's instruction, Feldman, none
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the less, examined each photo and then one by one
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discarded them into a pile. According to body camera footage
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included in the court filing. Feldn narrowed the group of
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photos down to two, Gatland and another man who was
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also black but had a notably lighter compleccheon. According to
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a motion filed by Gatland's lawyer, he placed Gatland's photo
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into the discard pile while motioning to the other man.
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I want to say it's him, he said, pointing to
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the other man. The detectives did not immediately accept the identification,
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and a few moments later Feldman brought Gatland's photo back,
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saying he wasn't sure which of them it could have been.
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Thinking about the characteristics of the guy, his complexion, Did
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he have anything about his hair or the clothing he
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was wearing, Saint Louis City Police detective matthew Well asked.
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When Felvin said he thought the man might have been
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wearing a hat or stocking, calf Well encouraged him to
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put his hands on the photos to help him picture
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these two guys wearing a stocking cap. Felvin then picked
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Gatland and looked over the officer expectantly, o kay Well said,
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directing Feldman to circle Gatland's photo and sign his name,
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ignoring his early comment about the other man. Feldmn's statement
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was the only evidence police hat when they filed a
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complaint against Gatland six days later, showing how police confidence
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in software resolved can influence an entire investigation. Asked months
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later in court whether steering the witness in this way
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had been proper, the lead detective Shoot would answer no.
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Trace Uponish, a spokeswoman for the Saint Louis Counton Police,
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said in an email statement that the agency trades officers
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to develop independent, corroborative evidence regarding facial recognition and requires
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supervisor review of cases in which facial recognition helps lead
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to an arrest. Pawnish, Shute and Mitch McCoy, a spokesman
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for the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police, all declined to discuss
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the investigation into the attack on Feldman. Well did not
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respond to requests for comment. Automation bias. Police credit facial
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recognition with helping them solve many different cases, including the
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January sixth, twenty twenty one attack on the US Capitol.
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Federal investigators gathered copious additional evidence in that probe, including
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the cellular location data and social media posts, resulting in
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more than one thousand, two hundred convictions. The software performs
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nearly perfectly in lap tests using clear comparison photos, but
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there has been no real world, independent testing of the
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technology's accuracy in how police typically use it with lower
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quality surveillance images and officers picking one candidate from a
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list of possible matches, said Katie Kinsey, chief of staff
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for the Policing Project at NYU School of Law. Because
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of this, it's hard to know how often the software
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gets at wrong, she said. Moreover, researchers have found that
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people using AI tools can succumb to automation bias, a
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tendency to blindly trust decisions made by powerful software, ignorant
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to its risks and limitations. One twenty twelve study by
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a University College London neuroscientist found fingerprint examiners were influenced
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by the order in which a computer's systems showed them
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a list of potentially matching fingerprints. They were more likely
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to erroneously matched prints that appeared at the top of
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the league, suggesting they failed to properly evaluate the similarities
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of other potential matches because of confidence in the system.
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In one example of the potent power of facial recognition.
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Police in Woodbridge, New Jersey, arrested Niger Parts a robbery
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suspect they sound through facial recognition in twenty nineteen, even
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though DNA and fingerprint evidence collected at the scene clearly
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pointed to another potential suspect, according to documents produced in
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a lawsuit Parts later filed against the police department, Woodbridge
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settled the suit for three hundred thousand dollars last year
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without admitting wrongdoing. Woodbridge Police did not respond to requests
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for comment, and The Post could find no indication that
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the man who was a match for the DNA and
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fingerprint evidence was ever charged. Academic research has shown some
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people have genetically similar doppelgangers who are unrelated to them.
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People are not particularly good at distinguishing between two unfamiliar
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faces that look alike, making it difficult to discern whether
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an AI match is the perpetrator or just someone who
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looks like them. According to Claire Garvey, an AI researcher
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who has trained criminal defense lawyers around the country, on
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how police are using facial recognition during the court deposition
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in twenty twenty three, Jennifer Coulson, a trained image examiner
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for the State of Michigan described in odd detail how
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she determined features of a man's face matched those of
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the perpetrator caught on surveillance videos stealing watches from a
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high end store. I loved his facial hair growth pattern,
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the sickness of his lips, the fissure of his lips,
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said Coulson, who picked the man out of hundreds of
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photos returned by the state's facial recognition soccer as possible matches.
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I loved the sickness of his cheeks and the presence
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of the sclare of the eyes. Coulson was wrong. The
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face she was describing belonged to Robert Williams, whom Detroit
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police wrongfully arrested partly based on her finding. In a
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settlement announced in June, Detroit paid Williams three hundred thousand
24:14
dollars and agreed to require officers to collect independent evidence
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on a I identified suspects before seeking an arrest warrant.
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Coulson did not respond to a request for comment. A
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spokeswoman for the Michigan State Police declined a comment on
24:30
the error, but said the state relies on investigators to
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corroborate all of the leads it provides. Them from facial recognition.
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In several cases reviewed by the Post, officers arrested a
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person identified by a I after only using their own
24:45
judgment that it was the same person, or by showing
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a photo of the suspect to witnesses without otherwise linking
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the person to the crime record show long before a I.
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Witness identification has been seen as problematic when it is
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the only evidence of the suspect's guilt. Human memory is imperfect,
25:04
and witnesses can be unconsciously or consciously influenced by police.
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According to a database maintained by the National Registry of Exoneration,
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an academic research group, more than a quarter of all
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exonerations since nineteen eighty nine, or nine hundred eighty six
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cases have involved a mistaken witness identification, whether they realize it.
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Police who put a suspect found through AI into a
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photo lineup may effectively trick a witness into picking that person,
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said Gary Weld, a psychologist at Iowa State University whose
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research has shed light on faulty eye witness identification. The
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AI may have selected someone who looks so much like
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the perpetrator it would be impossible for many people to
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tell the difference, Well said, of course, they're going to
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pick him. A knock at the door. Five days after
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Feldman circled Gatland's photo, police knocked on the door of
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Gain Gatlin's sister's house in Saint Louis. A slender man
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with a broad smile, Gatland had been splitting his time
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between Saint Louis, where he grew up, and a small
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town in Indiana, where his gad lived. He had recently
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returned to Saint Louis for his mother's funeral, but ended
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up staying awhile, spending time with his children and taking
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a job at the wal mart near the Saint Louis Airport.
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He was unwinding after working the night shift when the
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two officers asked him step outside, He complied, thinking they
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were there to ask about his truck, which had broken
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down on the side of the road. They asked whether
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he had a card for the Metro train in his wallet.
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When he said no, they briefly looked at each other,
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he said, then one pulled out a pair of handcuffed
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and told him he was going to jail. Like many
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facial recognition cases reviewed by the Post, the police complained
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said only that Gatlin quote has been identified in an
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assault that was caught on video, without saying how police
26:58
had connected him to the cry. When Galin could not
27:01
pay the seventy five thousand dollar cash bond, he was
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remanded to a jail cell smaller than a parking space.
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I never thought I was going to get out, Gatlan,
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now thirty two said in an interview. He ended up
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spending sixteen months in jail, in part because he cut
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off the ankle monitor when he was on conditional release
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and had to go back. In all the known cases
27:24
of wrongful arrest, because of facial recognition, police arrested some
27:28
one without independently connecting the person to the crime. Take
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Fare now forty nine, a medical entrepreneur who spent three
27:36
days behind bars in July twenty twenty four after police
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accused him of cashing a fraudulent thirty six thousand dollar
27:43
check at a Truest Bank French in Miami based on
27:47
a surveillance camera image they ran through facial recognition. According
27:51
to documents prosecutors shared with the Post, Unlike other false
27:55
arrest cases, Berny was correctly identified as the person in
28:00
surveillance vidia, However, Vernou was just a customer casing a
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legitimate one thousand, five hundred dollars check in the same
28:08
bank on the same day as a fraud. An investigator
28:12
from Truist mistakenly shared the clip of Vernaw with police.
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According to a summary of the case written by a prosecutor,
28:20
the police never checked Arnaud's bank accounts, the time stamp
28:23
of the transaction, or other evidence that would have revealed
28:26
the mistake. Whose defense lawyer said, this is your investigative work.
28:31
Vernow recalls asking the detectives who questioned him at the
28:34
Miami Police Department during his detention, you have a picture
28:38
of me at a bank, and that's your proof, I said,
28:42
where's my fingerprints on the check? Where's my signature. Prosecutors
28:47
later dropped the case, but Vernaw said he is still
28:49
working to get the charges removed from his record. Freddie Cruz,
28:54
a Miami Police boatsman, said the department had launched an
28:57
internal investigation into the handling of the times. Truest spokeswoman
29:02
Carly Debek's said the company is unable to discuss any
29:06
open or close law enforcement matters. Brunout is white, the
29:11
other seven wrongful arrestees are black. Concerning evidence of the
29:15
technology's racial bias, according to civil liberties groups. Federal testing
29:20
in twenty nineteen showed that Asian and Black people were
29:24
up to one hundred times as likely to be misidentified
29:27
by some software as white men, potentially because the photos
29:31
used to train some of the algorithms were initially skewed
29:34
toward white men. In interviews with The Post, all eight
29:38
people known to have been wrongfully arrested said the experience
29:42
had left permanent scars, lost jobs, damaged relationships, mispayments on
29:47
car and home loans. Some said they had to send
29:50
their children to counselor to work through the trauma of
29:53
watching a mother or father get arrested on the front lawn.
29:57
Most said they also developed a fear. I know I
30:01
was innocent, so how do I beat a machine? Said
30:04
Alonzo Sawyer, fifty eight, who was arrested by Maryland authorities
30:08
in twenty twenty two for an assault on a bus
30:11
driver that occurred while he said he was at his
30:13
sister in law's house. Sawyer says he only got out
30:17
of jail because his wife drove ninety miles to personally
30:20
confront a probation officer whom police had pressured into falsely
30:24
confirming her husband as the attacker. He apologized and retracted
30:28
his statement. Scott Schellenberger, the state's attorney for Baltimore County,
30:33
said in an interview, though Sawyer was wronged and should
30:36
never have been arrested a lucky break. Gatland's lucky break
30:41
came in the form of his assigned public defender, Brook Lima,
30:45
whose decades of experience and criminal defense had made her
30:48
wary of trusting police. The county's case against Gatland made
30:52
no sense to her because he had no reason to
30:55
be on the train that morning. Gatland owned a truck
30:58
and rarely took public trans it. He says he thinks
31:01
he was at home with his family that day, but
31:04
it can't be sure and has nothing to prove it
31:06
because police did not approach him until eight months after
31:09
the crime. Saint Louis uses a facial recognition system maintained
31:14
by a regional multi jurisdiction law enforcement program that contains
31:18
more than two hundred fifty thousand mugshots. Gatland was in
31:22
the system, having been arrested for traffic violations as well
31:26
as a burglary charge in twenty eighteen. The burglary charge
31:30
was later dropped because prosecutors could not produce enough evidence.
31:34
Record show. Gatland declined to comment on the charge, and
31:37
Missouri courts do not provide records on cases that have
31:40
been dismissed. It seems so outrageously dystopian to me. Limis
31:45
said in an interview, You've got a search engine that
31:48
is determined to give you a result, and it is
31:51
only going to search for people who have been arrested
31:53
for something, and is going to try to find somebody
31:56
among that limited population that comes closest to this snipp
32:00
of a half face that you found. Lina had never
32:03
heard of police using facial recognition before seeing it mentioned
32:07
in Gatland's police report. She researched how it worked, spoke
32:11
to a national expert on the technology, and went down
32:14
a Quote Westlaw rabbit hole researching the handful of appellate
32:18
cases around the country in which the technology has begun
32:21
to be mentioned. She became disturbed by the idea that
32:25
the government would rely on a machine to identify somebody
32:29
as a potential suspect in a crime. Examining the surveillance
32:33
videos of the train platform attackers, which were filmed by
32:36
a small camera affixed to the side of a metro
32:39
bus parked at the station that morning. Lina came to believe,
32:43
and eventually argued in court, that Shoot and Well had
32:46
relied on an image that was probably not clear enough
32:49
to produce a reliable match. The user manual for the
32:53
Saint Louis Mugshot Recognition Technology program states that an image
32:57
needs to be high quality in order for the system
33:00
to provide accurate likely candidates, and yet the detectives had
33:04
submitted a photo of a man whose face was barely recognizable.
33:09
The body cam video showing Feldman's photo line up did
33:12
not come to light until months after Gatlin's arrest, when
33:15
an officer mentioned during a deposition that he recorded the episode.
33:20
Chris King, a spokesman for the Saint Louis County Prosecutor,
33:24
said the attorney assigned to this case first learned about
33:27
the existence of the video from this deposition, even though
33:30
the recording was explicitly mentioned in a police report that
33:34
was provided to prosecutors and defense attorneys following the arrest.
33:38
After the prosecutor learned about the video and requested it
33:41
from police, King said it was released to the defense.
33:45
Saint Louis Circuit court Judge Brian May, who presided over
33:49
the case, watched it during a February twenty twenty four
33:52
hearing and immediately ruled the identification could not be used
33:56
in court. Well and Shoot had broken with widely accepted
34:00
practices for conducting fair and impartial photo line ups. May
34:04
found they had pushed Felden for a statement even though
34:08
he said he couldn't remember the perpetrators. They invited a
34:12
third officer to be an impartial administrator per protocol, but
34:15
Well interfered with the process by suggesting which photo belonged
34:19
to their suspect. The judge determined, I really do think
34:23
the detective was sort of over zealous to be able
34:26
to try to resolve this crime, May said, according to
34:29
a court transcript, during the hearing, Lima confronted Sute with
34:34
the steps he had taken to rest Gatlan, the surveillance image,
34:38
the facial recognition scan, the improper photo line up, and
34:41
witness statement. Do you believe that this is a reliable
34:45
way to get a legitimate identification of a suspect, she asked.
34:49
I do not, she said, With no evidence against him,
34:53
prosecutors dropped all charges against Gatlin in March. This week,
34:58
he sued the agencies and office there is responsible for
35:01
his arrest, seeking unspecified monetary damages. The agencies and officers
35:06
did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile, Lima,
35:11
freshly educated on police use of facial recognition technology, remains
35:15
concerned that police over confidence and lax oversight will lead
35:19
to more wrongful arrests. What are police departments being told
35:24
about how they can and should use this, she said,
35:27
and whose enforcing this methodology. The Post spent eight months
35:33
requesting internal records about facial recognition for more than one
35:37
hundred police departments around the country believed to be using
35:40
the technology based on government contracts, media reports and previous
35:45
public records requests. Of these, seventy five confirmed their use
35:49
of the software, with forty providing records of individual cases
35:53
in which they use the software. Some of the agencies
35:56
said they did not keep logs of the cases in
35:58
which the software was used. Others said such lots were
36:01
not public information. Only twenty three provided incident reports and
36:06
arrest warrants that included sufficiently detailed narratives to determine how
36:10
police conducted their investigations. From these reports, the Post identified
36:15
cases in which police did not appear to seek other
36:18
evidence establishing an AI selected suspects connection to the crime.
36:23
If police made an arrest only after showing a photo
36:26
of a suspect identified by facial recognition to a witness,
36:29
the Post did not count that as independent corroboration, because
36:33
experts say this process can mislead witnesses into picting look
36:37
alikes who are not the perpetrator. If police knew the
36:41
suspect identified by facial recognition had a tattoo matching that
36:45
of the person in the surveillance image, the Post counted
36:49
that as corroboration, even if no other steps were taken.
36:53
If the identity of an AI recommended suspect was confirmed
36:57
by a police officer who claimed to have known them
37:00
from a previous interaction, the police counted that as cooperation. Finally,
37:05
the posts call police departments, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the
37:09
defendants themselves to learn more about the cases. In some cases,
37:13
these interviews yielded information that cases were properly corroborated, despite
37:18
a lack of public documentation. The fifteen police departments that,
37:23
according to the Post analysis, made at least one arrest
37:26
based on AI results without obtaining independent evidence are Austin Brennanton, Florida,
37:33
Coral Springs, Florida, Detroit, Evansville, Indiana, Florence, Kentucky, Jefferson Parish
37:40
Sheriff's Office, Louisiana, Maryland, Transit Administration Police Miami, Ocala, Florida, Flugerville, Texas,
37:50
Saint Augustine, Florida, Saint John's County Sheriff's Office, Florida, Saint
37:55
Louis Woodbridge, New Jersey. Our next item from today's friend
38:00
page is entitled a tough test for Pentagon nominee Hexath.
38:05
Critics to face off Today hearing will scrutinize conduct qualifications
38:11
by Abigail House Loner, Liz Goodwin, and Missy Ryan. President
38:16
elect Donald Trump's controversial nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hexath,
38:21
will appear for questioning Tuesday on Capitol Hill in a
38:25
public confirmation hearing that Democrats will use to interrogate his
38:29
limited management experience, allegations of illicit and inappropriate conduct, and
38:34
a long history of public commentary deriding women, minorities, and
38:38
people with opposing political views. Hexath, a former Fox News
38:43
host who is called for a counter attack to retake
38:46
America's military from quote radical leftists and Democrats, will be
38:51
the first of Trump's unconventional cabinet picks to submit a
38:55
formal scrutiny before a bipartisan panel of senators. Hexsett's path
39:00
winning the job depends in large part on how he
39:02
weathers the blistering question he will face this week, with
39:06
little hope of securing any Democratic votes, and as several
39:10
moderate Republicans have expressed concerns about his nomination as the
39:15
Secretary of Defense, one of the senior most positions in
39:18
Trump's incoming cabinet. Hexath, a forty four year old National
39:22
Guard veteran who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, would
39:26
oversee more than three million military and civilian personnel around
39:29
the world, the vast us nuclear arsenal, and an annual
39:33
budget of more than eight hundred billion dollars. The task
39:37
of assessing whether he is up to the job now
39:40
falls to the Senate Armed Services Committee, where Democrats are
39:44
expected to hammer him Tuesday with questions about his past
39:47
conduct and his qualifications to lead the nation's military. As
39:51
the United States faces threats from Russia, China, Iran, and
39:55
adversaries around the world. If approved by the Committee, the
39:59
full Senate will vote on whether to confirm him. Hexth's nomination,
40:04
while already unconventional for his relative youth and lack of experience,
40:08
has been plotted by allegations of misconduct since Trump named
40:12
him in November. He has acknowledged paying an undisclosed sum
40:16
to a woman who had accused him of sexual assault
40:18
at a Republican conference in twenty seventeen. Former employees who
40:22
worked with him at two veterans groups and at Fox
40:25
News have accused him of financial mismanagement, excessive drinking, and sexism.
40:31
As The New Yorker first reported, Hexath has denied the allegations.
40:36
Senator John Barosso of Wyoming, the second ranking Republican in
40:40
the Chamber, extolled Hexath as very qualified for the job
40:44
during a Sunday morning appearance on CBS News Face of Nation.
40:48
He certainly has equalities that we need to lead the Pentagon.
40:51
He knows about a fit fighting force. He has a record,
40:55
a distinguished record of service in the military, Barosso said.
40:59
But Democrats are said to argue that he is ill
41:01
prepared to lead the sprawling Pentagon bureaucracy. He is not
41:05
qualified to do the job, said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat
41:09
from Illinois and a rock combat veteran and Armed Services
41:13
Committee member, who added that her whole focus is going
41:16
to be on his qualifications and experience in managing an organization.
41:21
He has managed fewer people than the manager of an Applebee's.
41:25
You want someone serious, and you want someone responsible, said
41:28
Senator Jackie Rosen, Democrat from Nevada and Hexth. I'm afraid
41:33
with the allegations of sexual misconduct, allegations of financial mismanagement,
41:39
how is he going to manage billions of dollars? How
41:41
are people going to respect him? The breadth of the
41:45
allegations against Hexath has fueled doubts even among some Senate
41:48
Republicans about whether they would be willing to confirm the nominee.
41:53
But Hexath staged a remarkable comeback last month, showing up
41:57
go P support with the help of a pressure campaign
42:00
from Trump allies that targeted the Republican senators who had
42:03
expressed concerns about his background. Senator Joni Ernst, Republican from Iowa,
42:09
an Army Reserve veteran and sexual assault survivor, initially called
42:13
for a process to vet the allegations surrounding HECXTH, but
42:17
then tempered her concerns. After a meeting with Hexath last month,
42:21
Ernest told reporters that they were having really good discussions,
42:25
and in a later statement, cited encouraging pledges he made
42:29
to support women in the ranks and address sexual assault.
42:33
Since then, ernst Test studiously avoided reporters questions and last
42:37
week declined to say whether she was interested in seeing
42:40
the results of hexxa's forthcoming FBI background check. The FBI
42:45
did not interview the woman who accused Heseth of sexual assault,
42:48
according to two people with knowledge of the report's contents,
42:52
who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions.
42:56
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican him South Dakota, said
43:01
Thursday on Fox News that he is hopeful for Hecseth's
43:04
chances of confirmation. Hecseth, for his part, has attended a
43:09
whirlwind of Capitol Hill meetings in recent weeks focused on
43:12
winning over Republicans, with Democrats on the Armed Services Committee,
43:16
saying he declined to meet with any of them ahead
43:19
of the hearing. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump
43:22
transition team said it was a Democrats who had been
43:25
unresponsive to Hecse's attempts to arrange meetings. The exception was
43:29
the committee's top Democrat, Rhode Island's Jack Read, who met
43:33
with Hecseth on Wednesday. The meeting lasted fifteen minutes and
43:37
it didn't go well. Today's meetings did not relieve my
43:41
concerns about mister Hecxath's lack of qualifications and raised more
43:45
questions than answers, Reid said in his statement. Mister Hecseth
43:49
has appreciated the chance to meet with over half the
43:52
Senate so far and has viewed each meeting as a
43:55
productive part of the Senate's advising consent responsibility. Hughes wrote
43:59
in an EA now he looks forward to answering Senator's
44:03
questions on his experience, its qualifications, and President Trump's and
44:07
his vision for the Department of Defense. On January fourteen,
44:11
if all forty seven Senate Democrats and Independence oppose Hesseth,
44:15
Republicans can afford to lose only three senators from their
44:19
side of the aisle if they hope to confirm him
44:21
to the Pentagon post. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky,
44:26
did not meet one on one with Hegseth last month,
44:30
despite the nominee's team requesting a sit down, according to
44:33
a source familiar with the planning who spoke on the
44:36
condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions. McConnell's office declined
44:40
to comment. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Senator Susan
44:45
Collins of Maine, both moderate Republicans, have said they still
44:49
have questions about Hegseth's records. John Curtis, Utah's new Republican
44:54
senator who replaced Trump critic Mit Romney, told reporters that
44:58
he asked Hegseth to re references and pledge to read
45:02
his book as he keeps an open mind about the selection.
45:06
Hexseth has been receptive to the guidance offered by Republican
45:09
lawmakers during their one on one meetings, Several senators said publicly.
45:13
He has also disavowed the calls from Trump's supporters to
45:16
vote out of office any who opposed the incoming president's picks.
45:21
I told him, I've been a participant in the confirmation
45:24
hearings of a number of Supreme Court justices, including Brett Kavanaugh,
45:28
and how ugly that can be and how hard it
45:31
can be not just on him, but also on his family.
45:34
Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, who is supporting Hecseth,
45:39
said last month Cornyn predicted that Democrats will go after
45:43
Hecseth on anything and everything, and what they don't have,
45:47
they'll make up Beyond the sexual assault allegations. Democratic senators
45:51
in particular will be looking at Hegseth's prolific authorship and
45:55
years of opining in front of a camera on Fox News.
45:59
In preparationation for the hearing, Senate aids from both parties
46:02
have spent weeks pouring over his five published books and
46:06
many hours of TV appearances, podcast interviews, speeches, and media coverage.
46:11
Hexseth has called on the next president to overhaul America's
46:15
armed forces, eliminating what he calls woke ideologies such as diversity,
46:20
equitied inclusion programs and the people who promote them. He
46:24
has mocked transgender military members as unfit for service, and
46:28
has said that the armed forces should be composed of
46:30
quote patriotic, faith filled Americans or quote normal man. The
46:36
military is expected to be an apolitical institution, and Hecces's
46:40
history of polarizing statements has helped to fuel the less
46:44
anxiety surrounding his nomination. Hexces's financial disclosures, released Monday underscore
46:50
his deep involvement in right wing political causes. In addition
46:54
to collecting four point six million dollars over the past
46:57
two years as a host on Fox News, the disclosure
47:01
notes that Hegseth made around nine hundred thousand dollars in
47:04
speaking fees at nonprofits, political action committees, and other organizations
47:09
that promote conservative policies and politics. Lots of people need
47:13
to be fired, he wrote in his twenty twenty four
47:16
book The War on Warriors, Behind the Betrayal of the
47:19
Men Who Keep Us Free. Hexseth is likely to face
47:23
questions from both parties about his view of women in combat,
47:26
a subject he devoted considerable space to opposing in his
47:29
last book. Women, he wrote, are meant to be life givers,
47:34
and their service in combat roles detracts from the military's
47:37
ability to fight wars. Dads push us to take risks.
47:41
Moms put their training wheels on our bikes. We need moms,
47:44
but not in the military and especially not in combat units,
47:48
he wrote. Since the announcement of his nomination, Hegseth has
47:52
appeared to walk back that position, telling Fox News host
47:56
Sean Hannity last month that his comments about women have
47:59
been misconstrued. Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors
48:04
out there, are women, he said. Democrats in the week
48:08
before the hearing expressed frustration with what they characterized as
48:12
a dearth of background disclosures provided by the Trump transition team.
48:17
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat from Connecticut, complained last week that
48:22
financial disclosures and an ethics report on Hexath did not
48:26
include records of the nominees transactions while he headed two
48:30
veterans organizations that were allegedly mismanaged. I do not see
48:34
how this committee can in good conscience consider mister Hexath's
48:38
nomination without a full review of his conduct while leading
48:42
these organizations, Blumenthal wrote to the Armed Services Committee chairman,
48:46
Senator Roger Wicker, Republican from Mississippi. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat
48:52
from Massachusetts, sent Hexseth a list of more than seventy questions,
48:57
including inquiries about his alleged financial mismans management, his suggestions
49:01
that Muslims are plotting to take over the West, and
49:04
reports that he had gotten so drunk at times that
49:07
he had to be carried out of professional events. Hexseth
49:11
has vowed not to drink any alcohol for the totality
49:13
of his tenure if confirmed, a tacit acknowledgment of his
49:17
troubled history. The FBI on Friday afternoon briefed Wicker and
49:22
read on the findings of Hexseth's background check, a standard procedure.
49:25
A Senate aide said it was unclear whether Wicker would
49:29
seek permission from the transition team and the FBI to
49:33
share the information with other committee members before the hearing.
49:37
If confirmed, Hexth would replace Lloyd Austin, a veteran battlefield
49:42
commander who has had to navigate the politically fraught US
49:45
withdrawal from Afghanistan in twenty twenty one, the war in
49:49
Ukraine and conflict in the Middle Eague. Neither Trump nor
49:53
Hegseth has offered a detailed vision for handling those conflicts,
49:57
although the president's elect has said he would bring any
50:00
immediate resolution to the Israel Gaza conflict and has vow
50:03
to brok an end to the Russia Ukraine War. Trump's
50:07
first term was marked by rapid turnover Encounteret positions, with
50:11
five acting or confirmed Defense secretaries over four years. The first,
50:15
Jem Mattis, resigned in protest over troop withdrawals from Afghanistan,
50:20
while Trump fired another, Mark T. Esper after he clashed
50:24
with the present over plans to draw the military into
50:26
political matters. There is no confirmation hearing in my experience,
50:31
more consequential than this one, said Blumenthal, who estimates that
50:35
he has attended more than one hundred confirmation hearings in
50:38
his Senate career, and he added, it's with a candidate
50:42
more lacking in character and competence, more unqualified and unprepared
50:46
for such a critical life and death responsibility. Marianna Alfaro
50:51
contributed to this report by next item from today's front
50:55
page is entitled Biden touts his record on foreign relations.
51:00
He trumpets alliances in a rebuke to Trump's more insular
51:04
politics by Cleave R. Woodston Junior and Karen De Young,
51:09
Speaking as much to the history books as to the
51:12
civil servants, gathered at the State Department on Monday afternoon,
51:15
President Joe Biden said u S foreign policy during his
51:18
term had put the United States and its allies on
51:21
a stronger footing another effort to use his final days
51:25
in office to burnish his presidential legacy. The nearly thirty
51:29
minute speech touched on dozens of issues on nearly every continent.
51:34
From fraying alliances, Biden said he encountered after he took
51:37
office to recent Israel Hamas cease fire talks that he
51:41
expressed optimism about. As he makes his exit, Biden said
51:45
he had sought at nearly every turn to have the
51:47
United States lead alliances on global issues. Rebuke if oblique
51:52
to the America First agenda of Donald Trump, who will
51:56
begin his second term in the White House on Monday,
52:00
My administration is leaving the next administration with a very
52:03
strong hand to play, Biden said, and were leaving them
52:07
in America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries
52:11
are weak and under pressure, and America, who once again
52:15
is leading. Biden spoke just days before Trump's January twentieth inauguration,
52:21
which will probably herald a sharp change in US foreign policy.
52:25
The president elect has already created a stir by talking
52:28
about expanding US sovereignty to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.
52:34
Biden's remarks seemed aimed in part at declaring that he
52:37
is leaving the United States in strong shape before whatever
52:41
turmoil the second Trump era brings. This week marks the
52:45
last of what has been a month's long effort by
52:47
Biden to highlight his handling of issues at home and
52:50
abroad and rebut critics who say his party's defeat in
52:54
November was a rebuke of his record. What was probably
52:58
his final speech on foreign policy as an elected official
53:02
after fifty years from the public arena comes a month
53:05
after an economic address that also sought to shape history's
53:09
perception of his record. Biden iss scheduled to deliver a
53:13
broader farewell address to the nation Wednesday night, speaking from
53:16
an oval office that will shortly be occupied by a
53:19
man he has declared unfit for the presidency. Biden has
53:23
based criticism for the United states turbulent withdrawal from Afghanistan
53:27
in twenty twenty one, although it was Trump who first
53:30
agreed to the US departure and his unwavering embrace of
53:34
Israel's war in Gaza while earning praise for rebuilding coalitions
53:38
against Russia and China. In Monday's remarks, Biden said his
53:43
diplomatic efforts and dealings with foreign leaders had advanced the
53:47
United States values and aims. Biden spent a large chunk
53:51
of his five decade career focused on foreign policy, including
53:56
a dozen years as chairman or ranking democrat of the
53:59
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As Vice President, Biden played a
54:03
significant role in President Barack Obama's foreign policy, and he
54:07
has frequently touted his deep understanding of global issues, as
54:11
well as his close relationships with leaders around the world.
54:15
The President said his report card shows the United States
54:18
with more allies than at any point in its history,
54:22
adding that this helped him rally the world and strengthen
54:24
NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February twenty twenty two.
54:30
When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he'd conquer Kiev in
54:33
a few days. But the truth is, since that war began,
54:37
I'm the one that stood in the center of Kiev,
54:39
not him, Biden said, referring to a cloak and dagger
54:43
trip he took to the Ukrainian capital in twenty twenty
54:46
three in the middle of the full scale Russian invasion.
54:50
Biden also said he was optimistic that a deal for
54:53
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was imminent 'round the brink
54:57
of a proposal that I laid out in detail mon ago,
55:00
finally coming to fruition, he said. The White House has
55:04
said several times previously that an Israel Kamas sees fire
55:08
is within reach, only to see the talks collapse amid
55:11
mutual blame, but officials say this time is different. National
55:16
Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that Biden
55:20
officials have coordinated with Trump's incoming team to present a
55:24
united message to Israel and Hamas. Steve Whitcoff, Trump's pick
55:29
for Middle East Envoy, has been a Qatar for much
55:32
of the past week for the negotiations, and he visited
55:35
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo with Biden negotiator Brett McGirk
55:40
over the weekend. Israeli and US officials indicated Monday that
55:46
virtually all outstanding issues have been resolved, from how many
55:49
hostages will be released and when, to how many Palestinian
55:53
prisoners will be free, and whether Israeli troops will remain
55:57
in Gaza, the extent of the Israeligh military's continued presence
56:01
in the Netsarum Quarter. An east west passage dividing the
56:05
Enclay remained unclear Monday. Israel has agreed that hundreds of
56:10
thousands of Palestinian civilians who have fled Israel's bombardment in
56:14
the south of Gaza can return to their homes in
56:16
the north as long as unspecified security measures are in place.
56:22
While the administration has offered similar expressions of optimism in
56:25
the past, this time the warring parties seemed to concur
56:29
that a deal is near. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Tsar
56:33
said at a news conference Monday that there is progress
56:36
in the negotiations. Passem Naim, a senior Hamas official, agreed
56:41
that there had been significant progress in the talks over
56:44
a final draft agreement presented by the mediators dar Egypt
56:48
and the United States. We are so close, Naim said
56:52
in a message to the Washington Post at the State
56:55
Department on Monday. Biden also defended his decision to end
56:59
the war in Afghanistan during the first year of his presidency,
57:03
a move that became highly controversial, especially after thirteen U
57:07
S service members and about one hundred seventy Afghans died
57:11
in a suicide bomb attack outside Kabul's airport. Pentagon officials
57:16
had warned that ending you was involvement in Afghanistan too
57:19
quickly could cause a situation in the country to unravel.
57:24
As United States presence dwindled, seams of chaos in Afghanistan
57:28
spread around the world, including of people plummeting from planes
57:32
in a desperate attempt to flee the country. Biden had
57:36
said the deaths were a tragedy, but has stood by
57:38
his decision to end a twenty year war. On Monday,
57:42
Biden noted that he was the only president in that
57:45
span who did not hand off the messy war to
57:47
his successor, saying history would support his judgment that the
57:51
benefits of ending the war outweighed the costs. In my view,
57:56
it was time to end the war and bring our
57:58
troops home, and we did. He said. We grieve all
58:02
of the two thousand, four hundred sixty one Americans who
58:05
made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, Aiming the war was
58:09
a right thing to do, and I believe history will
58:12
reflect that. As he has made the case for his
58:15
legacy in recent months, Biden has been at times contemplative
58:19
and at times combative and Unfortunately, we have no more
58:23
time to complete this item. This concludes the reading of
58:27
the Washington Post for to day Tuesday, January fourteenth, twenty
58:32
twenty five. Your reader for to day has been Centy Fraser.
58:36
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
58:40
please feel free to call us at eight five nine
58:43
four two two six thirty nine zero. Thank you for listening,
58:47
and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio
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