Amid continuing protests against police brutality and the use of lethal force against unarmed citizens, four congressional Democrats have introduced a new law enforcement reform bill that prohibits the use of facial recognition technology in body cameras. The bill would require federal, state, and local officers to wear body cameras, however, with the prospect of facial recognition technology having a racial bias, the bill restricts its use in the police force.
The bill is called the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, and also includes large-scale reforms to police accountability and the use of force. The legislation aims to protect citizens’ from police brutality while respecting their privacy, honing in on the use of recording equipment. The bill would require all uniformed officers with authority to conduct searches and make arrests to wear a body camera at all times. However, the bill is very clear that this video footage will not be used to gather intelligence information based on First Amendment-protected speech in terms of associations or religion.
Read More: Policing Reform Bill Would Prohibit Embedding Facial Recognition in Body Cameras
