New legislation introduced in California's Assembly would severely curtail the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies in the state.
KNX Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman spoke with San Francisco assembly member Phil Ting, who proposed this legislation.
Ting said, "What I'm trying to do is make sure that law enforcement agencies have some guidelines as to when to use and when not to use facial recognition software. While we know the technology is improving, it's still not perfect, and we don't want the facial recognition match by itself to be the reason for an arrest."
The proposed law would prohibit law enforcement from proceeding with a search, arrest, or affidavit for a warrant based solely on a facial recognition match.
This isn't the assemblyman's first run at regulating facial recognition technology. Last year, his office worked alongside law enforcement to develop guidelines but could not get that bill through the legislature.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
This time around Ting said, "We're coming back with something that's, much, much smaller... we really provided much broader guidelines as to when to use and not use facial recognition as well as the settings for the facial recognition."
Ting said, unfortunately, they were met with a lot of opposition, "Ironically from folks like the ACLU, who really were much more in favor of a permanent ban or a permanent moratorium."
Assemblyman Ting is hopeful this "modest step in the right direction" will pass and is optimistic Governor Newsom will be open to it based on his conversations with the governor regarding last year's attempt.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
