Mass. bill would curb police use of facial recognition technology

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering restrictions on law enforcement's ability to use facial recognition technology.

Civil rights activists have criticized the emerging technology for years, pointing to a growing body of research showing the software disproportionately misidentifies people of color. Several Massachusetts cities, including Boston and Springfield, have banned the use of the technology locally.

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary heard hours of testimony Tuesday on proposals to limit the technology's use by police.

"Facial recognition technology is dangerous, both in its ability to facilitate government surveillance, and its track record of misidentifying people in criminal investigations," State Sen. Cynthia Creem told the panel.

Creem is sponsoring a bill that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before using facial recognition on an unidentified suspect, and then inform criminal defendants they were identified through the software.

"I think that's called protecting one's civil rights," Creem said.

The bill has exceptions for emergency situations. It would also centralize Massachusetts police departments' ability to use facial recognition technology within a special State Police unit.

The proposal codifies the recommendations of the state’s Special Commission on Facial Recognition Technology, which was set up as part of the state's sweeping 2020 police reform law.

The House approved identical legislation last year, but the state Senate did not take it up before the session ended in July.

Other states like Montana and Maine had passed facial recognition laws in the years since Massachusetts' proposals first came out, according to Kade Crockford, the director of the Technology for Liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts.

"It would be a real shame if we in Massachusetts didn't benefit from all that hard work and enact these recommendations and put them into law here," they said.