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[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>
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