Massachusetts Commission Misses Deadline for Facial Recognition Report

Massachusetts lawmakers are still waiting on a report from a commission that was set up to investigate the state’s use of facial recognition software. The commission was green-lit as a result of a police reform bill that became law in December of 2020, and it was supposed to produce a finished report one year later, with a final deadline of December 31, 2021.

That deadline has now passed, and several commissioners have acknowledged that the report is not yet complete. However, they claimed that the report was close to done, and would be finished as soon as possible. If that is indeed the case, the missed deadline could be a more run-of-the-mill bureaucratic delay, and might not say anything about facial recognition in particular.

The commission’s report is supposed to include recommendations that will guide the state’s facial recognition policies moving forward. The state legislature passed a law that restricted the police use of facial recognition at the tail end of 2021, though that bill was still not as strict as earlier versions that faced opposition from Governor Charlie Baker. The new law does not fully ban the police use of the technology, but the police must submit a formal written request to either the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the Massachusetts State Police, or the FBI in order to perform a facial recognition search during an investigation.

For their part, the commissioners claimed that the delay was a testament to the thoroughness of their investigation. They noted that the subject is sensitive, and lengthy conversations were necessary to bring the report to a satisfactory conclusion. The commission will send a draft report to commissioners before voting on and publishing its finished report.

As it stands, Massachusetts lawmakers have been some of the earliest adopters of facial recognition legislation. Eight municipalities have now banned the police use of the technology, with Worcester becoming the most recent addition to the list in mid-December.

Source: MassLive

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January 5, 2022 – by Eric Weiss