EDITORIAL FACING CRIME BENEFITS OF HIGH-TECH POLICE TOOL OUTWEIGH RISKS.

TWO men are double-riding a bicycle on Alvarado Street - a crime, albeit a petty one. Still, the incident gives police justification for pulling the men over and checking out their suspicion that one is a gang member, passing through the area in violation of a permanent anti-gang injunction.

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, the officers are soon able to confirm their suspicion.

That's because the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department is field-testing special facial-recognition software that allows cops to scan suspects' faces into a computer that checks their images against a database of past offenders.

In this case, as reported by The Associated Press, the cops not only identified a likely gang member, but they also searched him and found methamphetamine. The upshot may well be one more bad guy behind bars, which is great news for everyone living in this community.

Yet some, including the American Civil Liberties Union, question the LAPD's use of the facial-recognition software, citing privacy concerns, and warning that it could result in increased racial or social profiling. Their concerns are fair, but must be kept in perspective.

There is not a weapon in the police arsenal that hasn't been abused in the past and almost surely won't be abused in the future. Such is the danger of having a police force of human beings. Preventing abuse requires vigilance, not depriving officers of tools that can help them to do their jobs more effectively.

And facial-recognition software has the potential to greatly improve public safety. At airports or other public venues, it could alert authorities to the presence of terrorists, thus preventing attacks before they happen.

As for racial profiling, that seems more likely to happen without facial screening. Unlike computers, which can compare each unique face to thousands in a database, officers must rely on memorized generalizations - i.e., profiles.

Whatever the risks of this technology, the potential benefits, for police and the public alike, are all the greater.