Police now advised to avoid looking directly at suspects’ Face ID-equipped devices to help prevent user lock out

If you’re a law enforcement officer making an arrest, don’t look directly at the iOS device featuring Face ID.
Or a basilisk.
Recently, a number of police officers have noted that while suspects can be forced to unlock their iPhones, cops have been instructed not to look directly at iPhones to avoid Face ID lock out.

In the case of Face ID, too many failed attempts will require the user to enter their passcode to unlock the device. A failed attempt can be from anyone who looks at the phone, not just the iPhone’s user. As such, cops have to be careful they don’t trigger a Face ID lock out like this according to forensics company Elcomsoft.
So, if you’re making an arrest, don’t look directly at the Face ID-equipped device or data retrieval becomes that much more difficult.
Via The Mac Observer and Motherboard