Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are making another attempt to tighten the state's laws on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement.
A legislative earing was held on the bills Tuesday.
The bills, filed in both the House and Senate, propose centralizing the use of facial recognition technology with the State Police.
It would also require a warrant to implement facial recognition in felony investigations.
Many who addressed the joint judiciary committee were concerned that people going about their daily lives are being exposed to facial recognition without even knowing it.
Jake Laperruque with the Center for Democracy and Technology spoke in favor of needing court approval.
"It can stop the government from cataloging sensitive activities such as attending a protest, going to a house of worship or visiting a medical clinic," Laperruque said. "Police have already used facial recognition to identify peaceful protestors in multiple U.S. cities."
State Representative Homar Gomez from Easthampton said the technology can be inaccurate — and discriminatory.
"Studies...show error rates as high as 35% for Black women compared to near-perfect accuracy for white men," Gomez said.
The bills include provisions for wider use of the technology in case of an emergency situation.
In 2022, a commission was set up to look into the issue and issued recommendations. The House passed legislation that year, but it was not taken up by the Senate. This bill seeks to implement many of those recommendations.
The city of Springfield, Mass., instituted a municipal ban on facial recognition in 2020.
State Representative Orlando Ramos, who was a city councilor at the time of that move, is the House sponsor of the bill. He recalled to the panel what he was hearing from residents at that time.
“Members of the community approached me because they had concerns about the way this technology was unregulated and was being used unregulated by law enforcement across the country,” he said.
