No official summary available for this bill.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9954 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9954
To prohibit use of remote biometric surveillance technology on any data
acquired by body-worn cameras of law enforcement officers, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 11, 2024
Mr. Beyer (for himself and Mr. Lieu) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit use of remote biometric surveillance technology on any data
acquired by body-worn cameras of law enforcement officers, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Facial Recognition Ban on Body
Cameras Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Facial recognition and other remote biometric
surveillance technologies pose unique and significant threats
to the civil rights and civil liberties of Americans.
(2) The use of facial recognition and other remote
biometric surveillance is the functional equivalent of
requiring every person to show a personal photo identification
card at all times in violation of recognized constitutional
rights. This technology also allows people to be tracked
without consent.
(3) It would also generate massive databases about law-
abiding Americans, and may chill the exercise of free speech in
public places.
(4) Facial recognition and other remote biometric
surveillance technology has been repeatedly demonstrated to
misidentify women, young people, people with disabilities,
transgender people, and people of color and to create an
elevated risk of harmful ``false positive'' identifications.
(5) Facial and other remote biometric surveillance would
corrupt the core purpose of officer-worn body-worn cameras by
transforming those devices from transparency and accountability
tools into roving surveillance systems.
(6) The use of facial recognition and other remote
biometric surveillance would disproportionately impact the
civil rights and civil liberties of persons who live in highly
policed communities.
(7) Its use would also diminish effective policing and
public safety by discouraging people in these communities,
including victims of crime, undocumented persons, people with
unpaid fines and fees, and those with prior criminal history
from seeking police assistance or from assisting the police.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITING USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER
REMOTE BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS.
(a) Federal Financial Assistance.--Beginning on the first day of
the first fiscal year beginning after the date of the enactment of this
Act, a State or unit of local government is ineligible to receive
Federal financial assistance under the Byrne grant program under
subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe
Streets Act of 1968 unless the State or unit of local government is
complying with a law or policy that is substantially similar to the
prohibition set forth in section 4.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be construed
to preempt or supersede any Federal, State, or local law that imposes a
more stringent limitation than the prohibition set forth in section 4.
SEC. 4. FEDERAL PROHIBITION.
A Federal law enforcement agency may not use facial recognition
technology or other remote biometric surveillance systems on any image,
video, or audio acquired by body-worn cameras of law enforcement
officers.
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Biometic surveillance system.--The term ``biometric
surveillance system'' means any computer software or
application that performs facial recognition or other remote
biometric surveillance.
(2) Body-worn camera.--The term ``body-worn camera''--
(A) means an officer camera or similar device that
records or transmits images or sound and is attached to
the body or clothing of, or carried by, a law
enforcement officer, including mobile phones; and
(B) includes smart glasses and similar devices that
include cameras attached to the frame of a piece of
eyewear.
(3) Facial recognition.--The term ``facial recognition''
means an automated or semi-automated process that assists in
identifying an individual, capturing information about an
individual, or otherwise generating or assisting in generating
surveillance information about an individual based on the
physical characteristics of the individual's face.
(4) Other remote biometric surveillance.--The term ``other
remote biometric recognition''--
(A) means an automated or semi-automated process
that--
(i) assists in identifying an individual,
capturing information about an individual, or
otherwise generating or assisting in generating
surveillance information about an individual
based on the characteristics of the
individual's gait, iris, fingerprint, or other
characteristic ascertained from a distance;
(ii) uses voice recognition technology; or
(iii) logs such characteristics to infer
emotion, associations, activities, or the
location of an individual; and
(B) does not include identification based on
fingerprints or palm prints when such information is
collected onsite via traditional physical means (as
opposed to fingerprint recognition systems that
identify an individual based on a photo on which their
finger is visible).
(5) Use.--The term ``use''--
(A) means--
(i) the direct use of a biometric
surveillance system by a law enforcement
officer or a law enforcement agency; or
(ii) a request or agreement by a law
enforcement officer or law enforcement agency
that another law enforcement agency or other
third party use a biometric surveillance system
on behalf of the requesting officer or agency;
(B) includes--
(i) running a biometric surveillance system
in real time on images, video, or audio
collected by a body-worn camera; and
(ii) running a biometric surveillance
system on images, video, or audio collected by
a body-worn camera after the data has been
collected, such as while reviewing footage
during the course of an investigation; and
(C) does not include--
(i) using a biometric surveillance system
on images, video, or audio collected by a body-
worn camera if the sole purpose of using such a
system is to aid with deidentifying
individuals, such as blurring faces; and
(ii) using a biometric surveillance system
to identify the law enforcement officer
employing the body-worn camera, such as an
officer using facial recognition system to
unlock their mobile phone.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
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