At least 45 requests were submitted to state police to use facial recognition to conduct searches for criminal suspects from Sept. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, according to newly released data from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
That’s a more than 200% increase over the same time period in the previous year, when the state agency fielded only 14 requests. Three years ago, only eight requests were received, according to the agency’s data.
Many of the requests were submitted by state police investigators, but others came from local police departments in Lawrence, Lynn, Amesbury, North Reading and other communities.
Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said the steep increase in the use of facial recognition searches by police underscores the need for Beacon Hill policymakers to set restrictions on its use to protect due process and privacy rights.
“In a free society, people shouldn’t have to worry that the government is secretly keeping tabs on all their movements, habits, and activities,” she said.
“This type of surveillance is always dangerous, but particularly so in an environment like today’s, with a federal government hell-bent on attacking our most basic rights, including our First Amendment rights to freely associate and speak out on issues that matter to us.”
State lawmakers have refiled a proposal for consideration in the two-year session that would limit and regulate law enforcement’s acquisition, possession, and use of biometric surveillance technology, which includes facial recognition systems.
Under the changes, law enforcement officers will need a warrant based on probable cause that an individual has committed a felony to use the technology to conduct a facial recognition search.
It would also centralize use of facial recognition systems — using only technology approved by the state Registry of Motor Vehicles — by law enforcement under the state police, and set new data retention requirements to prevent abuse of the images picked up from the technology.
The proposed changes are based on a report issued by a 21-member state commission that called for limiting use of facial recognition by local police departments and requiring more probable cause to obtain warrants to use the technology to monitor suspects.
A 2020 police reform bill, signed into law by then Gov. Charlie Baker, prohibits most state and local government agencies from using the technology but allows law enforcement to use the Registry of Motor Vehicles’ database of drivers license photos to conduct facial recognition searches.
Police agencies must make a request to use the state police’s software system. The state is required to publish data each year on how many times the system is searched.
Facial recognition is regarded as a quick, reliable way to identify someone from a surveillance system. Law enforcement says the technology makes it easier to acquire information about suspects and threats than other biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints, which require close proximity and contact to obtain.
The technology matches real-time images to previously captured images by comparing some 80 unique points on the face — across the eyes, nose, cheek and mouth — similar to the way fingerprints are analyzed.
Law enforcement officials say video surveillance and facial recognition systems have helped police crack kidnapping cases and find dangerous criminals and track down terrorists, including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers.
But civil liberties groups are concerned the technology contributes to racial stereotyping, not to mention invasions of privacy, and say more restrictions need to be placed on its use.
More than 117 million Americans can be found in the vast facial-recognition databases used by law enforcement, according to a 2016 Georgetown Law School study.
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