Amended  IN  Assembly  May 06, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  February 28, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1814

Introduced by Assembly Member Ting

January 10, 2024

An act to add Section 13661 to the Penal Code, relating to law enforcement.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1814, as amended, Ting. Law enforcement agencies: facial recognition technology.
Existing law, generally, regulates state and local law enforcement agencies regarding subject matter that includes the selection and training of peace officers, the maintenance and release of records, the use of force, and the use of certain equipment. Previous law, until January 1, 2023, prohibited the use of real-time facial recognition technology (FRT) by law enforcement agencies in connection with body-worn cameras.
This bill would prohibit a law enforcement agency or peace officer from using an FRT-generated match as the sole basis for probable cause in an arrest, search, or warrant. The bill would authorize a court to award damages of up to $25,000 and reasonable attorney’s fees to an individual who is subjected to a violation of this provision.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 13661 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

13661.
 (a) A law enforcement agency or peace officer shall not use a facial recognition technology (FRT) match as the sole basis for probable cause for an arrest, search, or affidavit for a warrant.
(b) A peace officer using information obtained from the use of FRT shall examine results with care and consider the possibility that matches could be inaccurate.
(c) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Facial recognition technology” or “FRT” means a system that compares a probe image of an unidentified human face against a reference photograph database, and, based on biometric data, generates possible matches to aid in identifying the person in the probe image.
(2) “Probe image” means an image of a person that is searched against a database of known, identified persons or an unsolved photograph file.
(3) “Reference photograph database” means a database populated with photographs of individuals that have been identified, including databases composed of driver’s licenses or other documents made or issued by or under the authority of the state, a political subdivision thereof, any other state, or a federal agency, databases operated by third parties, and arrest photograph databases. Nothing in this This paragraph shall not be deemed to abrogate the provisions of Section 12800.7 of the Vehicle Code or any other provision of law limiting the use of databases populated with photographs of individuals.
(d) (1) A violation of this section constitutes false arrest, as defined in Section 236, for which damages of up to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) may be awarded to an individual who is subjected to the false arrest.
(2) A court shall award reasonable attorney’s fees to a prevailing plaintiff under this subdivision.
(3) This subdivision does not preclude any other remedies available under other applicable laws.