By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Futuristic law enforcement equipment keeps improving.
The latest: Improvements in iris scan technology that can read people’s eyes to identify them, USA Today reports.
It’s considered a quicker alternative to fingerprinting.
USA Today reports that the Department of Homeland Security will run a two-week test in October of commercially sold iris scanners at a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas. It will be used on illegal immigrants.
The previous generation of eye scanners had to capture images from just a few inches away. But USA Today reports that the new ones can capture images from six feet away.
The ACLU has concerns.
lawyer Christopher Calabrese fears that the cameras could be used covertly. “If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there’s a camera and access to the Internet,” ACLU lawyer Christopher Calabrese told USA Today.
