More Than Half of U.S. Adults Trust Law Enforcement to Use Facial Recognition Responsibly
The ability of governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor the public using facial recognition was once the province of dystopian science fiction. But modern technology is increasingly bringing versions of these scenarios to life. 
When asked about their confidence that different entities will use facial recognition tools responsibly, the public expresses much greater trust in law enforcement agencies than in advertisers or technology companies. A 56% majority of U.S. adults trust law enforcement agencies at least somewhat to use facial recognition technologies responsibly, with 17% indicating that they trust these agencies a great deal to use facial recognition.
By contrast, around one-third of U.S. adults trust technology companies to use facial recognition technology responsibly, and just 18% trust advertisers with these technologies. Indeed, a mere 5% of Americans have a great deal of trust that technology companies will use facial recognition responsibly, and just 2% have high levels of trust in its use by advertisers.
Several groups express relatively low levels of trust in law enforcement agencies to use facial recognition responsibly – most notably black adults, younger people and those who identify as Democrats. Roughly six-in-ten whites trust law enforcement agencies to use facial recognition tools, but that share falls to 43% among blacks (an 18 percentage point difference). Comparable gaps in trust exist between 18- to 29-year-olds and those ages 65 and older, as well as between Democrats (including political independents who lean toward the Democratic Party) and Republicans and Republican leaners. Prior surveys by the Center of broader public attitudes toward law enforcement have found that roughly eight-in-ten Americans 
As was true of Americans' trust in law enforcement to use facial recognition technology, views of how acceptable it is for law enforcement to use facial recognition in public spaces vary based on age, political affiliation and racial or ethnic background.
These differences are especially stark in the case of age. Fewer than half (42%) of 18- to-29-year-olds think it is acceptable for law enforcement agencies to use facial recognition to assess security threats in public spaces. But that share rises to 55% among those ages 30 to 49, to 65% among those ages 50 to 64, and to 76% among those 65 and older. Indeed, just 6% of older Americans think this is an unacceptable use of facial recognition technology.
Additionally, a larger share of whites (64%) finds the use of facial recognition in public spaces by law enforcement to be acceptable relative to the shares of blacks (47%) or Hispanics (55%) who say the same. And Republicans (including those who lean toward the Republican Party) are somewhat more accepting of facial recognition when used by law enforcement relative to Democrats and Democratic leaners – although a majority of each group finds this acceptable.
Majorities of Americans think facial recognition can effectively identify individual people, as well as classify them by gender and race
Despite some well-publicized examples in which facial recognition technologies have misidentified individual people or struggled to recognize certain types of faces, most Americans consider these tools to be relatively effective. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) think facial recognition technologies are at least somewhat effective at accurately identifying individual people. Smaller majorities think these tools are effective at accurately assessing someone's gender (63%) or race (61%).
Larger shares of men than women think facial recognition tools are effective in each of these circumstances, and whites are consistently more likely to view them as effective than are blacks or Hispanics. Additionally, those who have heard more about facial recognition tend to have more positive opinions of its effectiveness in each of these areas. Relative to those who have heard only a little about this technology, Americans who have heard a great deal about facial recognition are roughly twice as likely to say these tools would be very effective at accurately identifying individual people (40% vs. 18% among those who have heard only a little), as well as accurately assessing someone's race (28% vs. 13%) or gender (28% vs. 14%).
