Baltimore lawmakers consider facial recognition technology after recent Mt. Washington break-ins

Some Baltimore leaders argue that it's time to use facial recognition technology to find the person responsible for a string of burglaries and break-ins in the Mount Washington neighborhood.

The debate is dividing people in the community, as the police search continues for a suspect responsible for committing multiple crimes in the neighborhood over the last two weeks.

Ring camera video shows a clear image of a person of interest, which could be scanned by police using facial recognition technology to possibly identify him.

However, a state law passed in 2025 limits the use of facial recognition technology to serious offenses, such as violent crimes.

"Unfortunately, this one has been a little bit challenging without being able to use facial recognition technology," Baltimore City Councilman Yitzy Schleifer said. "It has just delayed how long it's going to take to apprehend the suspect."

Councilman Schleifer told WJZ the suspect would have been apprehended by now if this law weren't quite so restrictive.

"I think that we should be able to use every piece of technology in the toolkit to solve crimes, and there's really no reason we should be limiting ourselves and limiting our detectives from utilizing a tool that can help them solve these crimes," Schleifer said.

The string of break-ins

Baltimore Police confirmed five different streets in Mount Washington that have been targeted between July 30 and Tuesday, August 12. 

Police are looking for a person of interest who was caught on camera approaching multiple homes in the community.  

Police patrols have been bolstered after several attempted break-ins were reported in the past few weeks, according to Councilman Schleifer. 

On August 1, a burglary was reported in the 2500 block of Whitney Avenue. Two cases were reported in the 5700 block of Pimlico Road on August 1, two burglaries were reported in the 2000 block of Carterdale Road on August 7, and two more were reported in the 6100 block of Eastcliff Drive on August 8. 

Mixed feelings over facial recognition technology

Mount Washington residents have mixed feelings about the facial recognition technology.

Some agree with the reasoning behind the law in the first place, voicing concern over the way the technology could backfire.

"I think there are forms of technology that can be overused to the point where you could almost use it as a form of profiling or you could use it to generalize a certain group of people," said Mount Washington resident Theo Hyatt.

"I have mixed feelings about it. I would say I have mixed feelings about the technology. I know it's a developing technology, I would just worry that it's like, of course, humans make errors," added Mount Washington resident Dayna Palmer.