California police want to turn their body cameras into face-scanning surveillance devices, the equivalent of requiring every person to carry and display a photo ID card at all times.
Everyone has a right to go about their daily lives without being surveilled and tracked by the government, but this policing proposal will especially harm Black and brown communities that are already most likely to be criminalized.
Take Action: Prevent California from expanding the surveillance state.
A new state bill — AB 1215: The Body Camera Accountability Act — would keep face recognition technology off police body cameras. This bill mirrors an emerging consensus that facial recognition is inaccurate and biased against people of color, especially Black women.1
Recently we saw a giant immigration raid tear apart over 600 families in Mississippi. One key to enabling that level of harm and trauma is facial recognition and other surveillance technology that allows law enforcement agencies like the Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport at an unprecedented scale.
But we should be able to move in our communities in peace and without the threat of being watched and criminalized. This technology doesn’t increase safety, it makes us less safe. Join us in sending a strong message to California state lawmakers: No face surveillance on police body cameras.
