BOSTON — Lawmakers are moving to set strict limits on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement officials to track down suspects.
Tucked into a $164 million government bond bill, approved by the state House of Representatives last week, is a proposal that would limit and regulate law enforcement’s acquisition, possession, and use of biometric surveillance technology, which includes facial recognition systems.
Under the changes, law enforcement officers would need a warrant based on probable cause that an individual has committed a felony to use the technology to conduct a facial recognition search.
It would also centralize use of facial recognition systems – using only technology approved by the state Registry of Motor Vehicles – by law enforcement under the state police, and sets new data retention requirements to prevent abuse of the images picked up from the technology.
The proposed changes are based on a report issued by a 21-member state commission in March that called for limiting use of facial recognition by local police departments and requiring more probable cause to obtain warrants to use the technology to monitor suspects.
The proposal’s primary sponsor, Rep. Michael Day, D-Stoneham, said the changes balance the need to set limits on use of the technology with its potential benefits for protecting public safety.
“These protections, if adopted by the Legislature, will set appropriate guidelines and restrictions on law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology, while acknowledging the potential benefits and actual benefits that improved facial recognition technology has for public safety,” Day said.
Facial recognition is regarded as a quick, reliable way to identify someone from a surveillance system. Law enforcement says the technology makes it easier to acquire information about suspects and threats than other biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints, which require close proximity and contact to obtain.
Each face has some 80 unique “nodal points” — across the eyes, nose, cheek and mouth — distinguishing one person from another. Facial recognition software matches real-time images to previous images by comparing those points and other features, similar to the way fingerprints are analyzed.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security scans faces of foreign travelers at many of the country’s largest airports, and it plans to expand its surveillance to every traveler flying overseas.
More than 117 million Americans can be found in the vast facial recognition databases used by law enforcement, according to a 2016 Georgetown Law School study.
Civil liberties groups say the technology contributes to racial stereotyping and invasions of privacy, and say more restrictions need to be placed on its use.
Kade Crockford, Technology for Liberty program director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, welcomed Beacon Hill’s push to set limits on the use of the technology by law enforcement. She said the changes — if also approved by the state Senate — will “appropriately balance public safety and civil liberties.”
A sweeping police reform bill, signed into law in December 2020, prohibits most state and local government agencies from using the technology. But the law also required that facial recognition systems be studied to better understand their capabilities, as well as concerns about privacy and racial profiling.
The policing reform law was aimed at expanding civilian oversight of law enforcement in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis.
But civil liberties groups say the changes didn’t go far enough to protect privacy rights and prevent facial recognition technology from being used to unfairly target minorities.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@northofboston.com.
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