California legislature bars facial recognition for police body cameras

SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - California’s legislature yesterday passed a three-year ban on state and local law enforcement from using body cameras with facial recognition software, the latest curb on technology that some say poses a threat to civil liberties.

The State Assembly voted 42-18 for the bill, AB1215, after a vote in favour by the Senate on Wednesday. It will now head to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for signing or a veto, and it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

The legislation prohibits officers from running facial recognition in real time or after the fact on footage collected by body cameras. However, police still may use the technology to blur faces in videos disclosed to the public, in order to protect individuals’ privacy. Police groups opposed the bill while others, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, backed it.

Assembly member Phil Ting, the bill’s sponsor, said yesterday’s vote was important for maintaining trust in communities that have benefited from the transparency cameras provide.

“If you install software onto those body cameras, then you run the risk of really destroying that trust,” he told reporters. “It becomes a tool of surveillance, which was never the goal.”

The bill reflects growing discontent in the United States over facial recognition, which government agencies have used for years and now has become more powerful with the rise of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies. San Francisco and Oakland voted this year to ban city personnel from using it.

Critics have said facial recognition is not ready for prime time, pointing to technology from Amazon.com Inc and others that struggled to identify the gender of individuals with darker skin in recent studies. This has prompted fears of unjust arrests.