Nora Grace-Flood photo
Austin Cesare congratulates the council Monday night on a “team” success.
Hamden’s Legislative Council voted unanimously Monday night in support of a new law that prohibits the town and its employees from acquiring, accessing, or utilizing facial recognition technology.
The bipartisan-backed legislation passed during the latest regular town council meeting, which was held online via Zoom.
The bill was first introduced by Council members Brad Macdowall and Austin Cesare in mid August. Just over a month later, and with only one minor edit to its original language, the ordinance is now ready to take effect.
The final language of the bill bars the Town of Hamden or any Hamden official “acting in their official capacity” from obtaining, retaining, accessing or using any facial recognition system or information obtained from facial recognition systems.
The “acting in their official capacity” language means that local officials may engage with such technology outside of their work for the town.
Supports of the bill cited legal threats posed by the technology to civil rights and civil liberties; histories of disproportionate inaccuracies by the technology in identifying the faces of people of color, youth, and women; and concerns that information from facial recognition technology would be incorporated into databases and systems that are already plagued by racial biases. Opponents of the bill had cautioned against outright banning a technology that may become more accurate, and useful, over time.
Read more about the council’s earlier debate over facial recognition technology here. Click here to read the final bill in its entirety.
During a meeting of the Council’s Administration Committee two weeks ago, Councilperson Valerie Horsley suggested several edits to the ordinance. Those suggested edits included a sunset provision, additional language to allow utilization of the technology in “extreme circumstances,” and clarifications that the tech prohibition would not extend to individuals’ acquisition of such software.
Only that last suggestion made it into the final bill, after Macdowall and Cesare worked with Town Attorney Sue Gruen to bolster one line in the legislation.
The Council did not engage in further discussion on the matter Monday. Instead, the local legislators unanimously moved to adopt the new regulations.
“It’s the obligation of the town council to be the check and to be the organization that keeps an eye on all components of town government,” said Cesare, a conservative councilperson who typically disagrees with progressive representatives like Macdowall, with whom he cosponsored the ordinance.
He said the ordinance was a strong example of how the council can and should come together to act for the greater good of the town.
“This is definitely a great piece of legislation,” Macdowall added at Monday’s meeting. “I’m excited that we’ve been able to do this one as a team.”
I'm glad Hamden is banning the flawed and biased technology of facial recognition. Until such technology has become 100% unbiased and accurate, to the point of being able to differentiate between identical twins of any race, gender, age or ethnicity, it should not be used in any official capacity. The research on the bias and inaccuracy of this technology in its current form makes it clear that it would cause innocent people to be falsely accused and suffer legal ramifications.