State Bill Submitted to Regulate Law Enforcement Use of Facial Recognition

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A bill to regulate the use of facial recognition technology for law enforcement purposes in California was introduced on Wednesday by Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco.

Assembly Bill 642 will establish state standards for the use of technology to protect privacy and due process rights while recognizing its use as a law enforcement tool.

Thing said the bill was needed because an attempt to extend the technology ban last year failed. In 2019, Assembly Bill 1215 suspended the use of this technology in body cameras worn by local law enforcement agencies across the state for three years. Because that temporary ban had expired, there were no statewide regulations governing the use of the technology. The new bill was supported by the California Police Chiefs Association.

“There are no rules at the moment,” Ting said at a press conference on Wednesday while introducing the bill.

The bill makes it illegal to use a match with facial recognition technology as the sole reason for arrest, search, or to testify under oath when obtaining a warrant. This will codify the 98% accuracy level for a match as the benchmark for using the technology. It also restricts its use if doing so would prevent someone from exercising constitutional rights such as freedom of assembly.

State Senator Stephen Bradford, D-Gardena, co-sponsor of the bill, said the bill is a common sense measure and will set clear parameters for when the technology can and should not be used. He said the bill’s wording is intended to address one of the biggest problems with the technology, namely its inaccuracy in recognizing the faces of people of color.

“One of the benefits of technology is that it helps law enforcement do their job more efficiently and effectively, but we also know that in the demonstrations that took place last year at the Capitol, many of my colleagues in the Black Legislative Assembly were wrongly identified as criminals,” Bradford said.

Abdul Prigen, a spokesman for the California Police Chiefs Association, said facial recognition technology has an unparalleled ability to help law enforcement in many ways.

“The goal of protecting our communities and preventing future crime motivates law enforcement to develop responsible, appropriate, and effective FRT programs,” Pridgen said.

Pridgen said the technology will be used during the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

AB 642 would also require departments and agencies to adopt written rules governing the use of the technology, require the algorithms used in the technology to be evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and require the government to report these policies annually.

The ACLU of Northern California has previously called the technology dangerous and said it threatens basic privacy rights and misidentifies people of color.

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