Maryland authorities used their facial recognition capabilities to identity Jarrod Ramos, the suspect in the shooting, which left four journalists and one newspaper sales associate dead on Thursday.
When he was apprehended at the scene of the horrific crime in Annapolis, Ramos had no identification and seemingly would not speak to police.
That database contains approximately 10 million driver’s license images and mug shots, according to documents released by Georgetown University researchers.
The result, according to the , was a hit for Jarrod Ramos, a 33-year-old man from Laurel, Maryland who apparently had a years-long grudge against the local newspaper.
As the reported: “As of 2016, as many as 6,000 or 7,000 law enforcement officials had access to the database. Officials at the time said the system had been accessed more than 175 times in a single week.”
According to a Friday statement reportedly released by Stephen T. Moyer, the secretary of Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the facial recognition scan of Ramos “performed as designed.” Moyer added that it “has been and continues to be a valuable tool for fighting crime in our state.”
Moyer did not respond to Ars’ request for further comment on Friday afternoon.
According to the documents Georgetown obtained under public records requests, the MIRS system has never been audited.
