I 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Facial Recognition 

5 Ban on Body Cameras Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Facial recognition and other remote biomet9 ric surveillance technologies pose unique and signifiVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:20 Oct 23, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9954.IH H9954

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1 cant threats to the civil rights and civil liberties of 

2 Americans. 

3 (2) The use of facial recognition and other re4 mote biometric surveillance is the functional equiva5 lent of requiring every person to show a personal 

6 photo identification card at all times in violation of 

7 recognized constitutional rights. This technology also 

8 allows people to be tracked without consent. 

9 (3) It would also generate massive databases 

10 about law-abiding Americans, and may chill the ex11 ercise of free speech in public places. 

12 (4) Facial recognition and other remote biomet13 ric surveillance technology has been repeatedly dem14 onstrated to misidentify women, young people, peo15 ple with disabilities, transgender people, and people 

16 of color and to create an elevated risk of harmful 

17 ‘‘false positive’’ identifications. 

18 (5) Facial and other remote biometric surveil19 lance would corrupt the core purpose of officer-worn 

20 body-worn cameras by transforming those devices 

21 from transparency and accountability tools into rov22 ing surveillance systems. 

23 (6) The use of facial recognition and other re24 mote biometric surveillance would disproportionately 


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1 impact the civil rights and civil liberties of persons 

2 who live in highly policed communities. 

3 (7) Its use would also diminish effective polic4 ing and public safety by discouraging people in these 

5 communities, including victims of crime, undocu6 mented persons, people with unpaid fines and fees, 

7 and those with prior criminal history from seeking 

8 police assistance or from assisting the police. 

9 SEC. 3. PROHIBITING USE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION TECH10 NOLOGY AND OTHER REMOTE BIOMETRIC 

11 SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS. 

12 (a) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—Beginning 

13 on the first day of the first fiscal year beginning after the 

14 date of the enactment of this Act, a State or unit of local 

15 government is ineligible to receive Federal financial assist16 ance under the Byrne grant program under subpart 1 of 

17 part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 

18 Streets Act of 1968 unless the State or unit of local gov19 ernment is complying with a law or policy that is substan20 tially similar to the prohibition set forth in section 4. 

21 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec22 tion may be construed to preempt or supersede any Fed23 eral, State, or local law that imposes a more stringent lim24 itation than the prohibition set forth in section 4. 


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1 SEC. 4. FEDERAL PROHIBITION. 

2 A Federal law enforcement agency may not use facial 

3 recognition technology or other remote biometric surveil4 lance systems on any image, video, or audio acquired by 

5 body-worn cameras of law enforcement officers. 

6 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) BIOMETIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM.—The 

9 term ‘‘biometric surveillance system’’ means any 

10 computer software or application that performs fa11 cial recognition or other remote biometric surveil12 lance. 

13 (2) BODY-WORN CAMERA.—The term ‘‘body14 worn camera’’— 

15 (A) means an officer camera or similar de16 vice that records or transmits images or sound 

17 and is attached to the body or clothing of, or 

18 carried by, a law enforcement officer, including 

19 mobile phones; and 

20 (B) includes smart glasses and similar de21 vices that include cameras attached to the 

22 frame of a piece of eyewear. 

23 (3) FACIAL RECOGNITION.—The term ‘‘facial 

24 recognition’’ means an automated or semi-automated 

25 process that assists in identifying an individual, cap26 turing information about an individual, or otherwise 


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1 generating or assisting in generating surveillance in2 formation about an individual based on the physical 

3 characteristics of the individual’s face. 

4 (4) OTHER REMOTE BIOMETRIC SURVEIL5 LANCE.—The term ‘‘other remote biometric recogni6 tion’’— 

7 (A) means an automated or semi-auto8 mated process that— 

9 (i) assists in identifying an individual, 

10 capturing information about an individual, 

11 or otherwise generating or assisting in gen12 erating surveillance information about an 

13 individual based on the characteristics of 

14 the individual’s gait, iris, fingerprint, or 

15 other characteristic ascertained from a dis16 tance; 

17 (ii) uses voice recognition technology; 

18 or 

19 (iii) logs such characteristics to infer 

20 emotion, associations, activities, or the lo21 cation of an individual; and 

22 (B) does not include identification based 

23 on fingerprints or palm prints when such infor24 mation is collected onsite via traditional phys25 ical means (as opposed to fingerprint recogniVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:20 Oct 23, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H9954.IH H9954

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1 tion systems that identify an individual based 

2 on a photo on which their finger is visible). 

3 (5) USE.—The term ‘‘use’’— 

4 (A) means— 

5 (i) the direct use of a biometric sur6 veillance system by a law enforcement offi7 cer or a law enforcement agency; or 

8 (ii) a request or agreement by a law 

9 enforcement officer or law enforcement 

10 agency that another law enforcement agen11 cy or other third party use a biometric sur12 veillance system on behalf of the request13 ing officer or agency; 

14 (B) includes— 

15 (i) running a biometric surveillance 

16 system in real time on images, video, or 

17 audio collected by a body-worn camera; 

18 and 

19 (ii) running a biometric surveillance 

20 system on images, video, or audio collected 

21 by a body-worn camera after the data has 

22 been collected, such as while reviewing 

23 footage during the course of an investiga24 tion; and 

25 (C) does not include— 


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1 (i) using a biometric surveillance sys2 tem on images, video, or audio collected by 

3 a body-worn camera if the sole purpose of 

4 using such a system is to aid with 

5 deidentifying individuals, such as blurring 

6 faces; and 

7 (ii) using a biometric surveillance sys8 tem to identify the law enforcement officer 

9 employing the body-worn camera, such as 

10 an officer using facial recognition system 

11 to unlock their mobile phone. 

Æ 


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