US states and local governments are backing off banning facial recognition, amid rising crime and increased lobbying from facial recognition developers
The rollback reverses a wave that crested around 2020: Orlando had ended its Amazon Rekognition police pilot after civil liberties outcry, and Microsoft and Amazon were pushing for federal regulation even as US and EU efforts to limit the tech stalled. Law enforcement deployments kept expanding through that period with critics pressing for transparency and rules.
First-order effects
Facial recognition developers regain access to state and local government customers that bans had closed off, with lobbying and rising crime cited as the drivers of the reversal.
Cities that followed the ban wave — the same jurisdictions that once shelved pilots like Orlando's — now face pressure to reopen procurement for police use.
Second-order effects
Civil liberties groups that forced early pilots to shut down shift from blocking adoption to demanding transparency rules on how law enforcement runs the technology.
If the pattern holds, US governance of facial recognition settles into a two-layer structure — permissive deployment locally, biometric-data limits at the state level — instead of the outright bans sought in 2020.
The trend: US facial recognition policy is cycling from local bans toward regulated adoption, with state biometric-data laws replacing prohibition as the main check.
This is what we call “treating the symptom.” We don't need more surveillance, we need to reduce poverty, increase education and opportunity, tackle discrimination, etc. Oh but that would cut into profits and power. Nvm. https://www.reuters.com/...
NIST and DHS testing has been showing strides in accuracy of facial recognition systems but GSA put out a recent report saying the tools aren't as good on African Americans but it has yet to share more details about the testing it conducted.
The Virginia law is the first in nation to tie police use of facial recognition to NIST testing on accuracy and demographic bias. But while NIST is a good proxy for policing uses, it's not a complete match and that has critics of face recognition raising 🚩
When you scratch the surface you'll find that $ales were driven by bombardment of fear and not facts. U.S. cities are backing off banning facial recognition as crime rises | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/...
Facial recognition is making a comeback in the United States as bans to thwart the technology and curb racial bias in policing come under threat amid a surge in crime and increased lobbying from developers https://www.reuters.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Virginia in July will eliminate its prohibition on local police use of facial recognition a year after approving it, and California and the city of New Orleans as soon as this month could be next to hit the undo button. (1/x) https://t.co/9VgUdbmcmj tip @Techmeme