A piece of legislation proposed by California Assemblyman Phil Ting has generated a conversation among lawmakers and law enforcement about the positive and negative aspects of facial recognition technology. The Body Camera Accountability Act, or AB-1215, which was introduced to the California State Senate in February, would prevent law enforcement from utilizing facial recognition software or any other biometric surveillance on officer body cameras.
The central concern regarding the systematic use of this technology was illustrated by the unnerving results of a test conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union of California. The test analyzed the faces of California lawmakers by running them through a database that included 25,000 mugshots of convicted criminals. One out of every five California legislators were mistakenly identified as a criminal.
