Technology
Minneapolis prohibits its police department from using facial recognition software.
On Friday, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously voted to approve an ordinance banning its police department and other city agencies from using facial recognition software, the Star Tribune reported. The ban adds Minneapolis to the list of US cities moving to limit or end its law enforcement officers and city employees' use of such technology.
But Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo said in a statement that without feedback from him, the ban was created and that, according to the Star Tribune, he believes it is possible to use facial recognition technology in accordance with data privacy and other citizen legal protections.
It has been found that facial recognition software has age, race, and ethnic biases, and advocates of privacy have raised concerns about its use by law enforcement.
The Minneapolis Ordinance established an appeals process allowing city agencies under certain circumstances to request exemptions.
After one of its police officers killed George Floyd during an arrest in May, Minneapolis was the site of enormous public protests last summer. Last June, the city council voted to disband its police department, but ended up reducing by less than 5 percent the department's 2021 budget.
Under the Minneapolis facial recognition ban, software made by Clearview AI, the controversial company that has a database of some 3 billion images scraped from social media and other websites, would be included. Last year, BuzzFeed News reported that Minneapolis was one of the police departments that had access to the software for Clearview. Clearview also has contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bans on facial recognition software have also been implemented by other cities, with Portland blocking the technology from both public and private use.
Boston, San Francisco, and Oakland have also passed laws banning the use of facial recognition by public institutions, but Portland was the first to prohibit private use.
