This Is the First US City to Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition

San Francisco institutes ban
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 14, 2019 7:13 PM CDT
This Is the First US City to Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition
This photo taken Tuesday, May 7, 2019, shows a security camera in the Financial District of San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the use of facial recognition software by police and other city departments, becoming the first US city to outlaw a rapidly developing technology that has alarmed privacy and civil liberties advocates, the AP reports. The ban is part of broader legislation that requires city departments to establish use policies and obtain board approval for surveillance technology they want to purchase or are using at present. Several other local governments require departments to disclose and seek approval for surveillance technology. "This is really about saying: 'We can have security without being a security state. We can have good policing without being a police state.' And part of that is building trust with the community based on good community information, not on Big Brother technology," said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who championed the legislation.

The ban applies to San Francisco police and other municipal departments. It does not affect use of the technology by the federal government at airports and ports, nor does it limit personal or business use. The San Francisco board did not spend time Tuesday debating the outright ban on facial recognition technology, focusing instead on the possible burdens placed on police, the transit system and other city agencies that need to maintain public safety. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, DC, issued a statement chiding San Francisco for considering the facial recognition ban. It said advanced technology makes it cheaper and faster for police to find suspects and identify missing people. (Teen says Apple's facial recognition technology got him arrested.)

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