Bill Text: NY A01447 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Prohibits the use of facial recognition and biometric information as the sole factor in determining the existence of probable cause to place in custody or arrest an individual.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-09 - referred to governmental operations [A01447 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A01447-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1447

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     January 9, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  ROSENTHAL  --  read once and referred to the
          Committee on Governmental Operations

        AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation  to  the  use  of  facial
          recognition and biometric information for determining probable cause

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 837-x of the executive law, as amended  by  chapter
     2  138  of  the laws of 2023, is renumbered section 837-y and a new section
     3  837-z is added to read as follows:
     4    § 837-z. Use of biometric identifying technology. 1. As used  in  this
     5  section:
     6    (a)  "Biometric  identifying technology" shall mean any computer soft-
     7  ware, algorithm, product, or application that collects or electronically
     8  analyzes biometric information for the purposes of identifying an  indi-
     9  vidual, including but not limited to facial recognition.
    10    (b)  "Biometric  information"  shall  mean  any measurable physical or
    11  behavioral  characteristics  that  are  attributable  to  an  individual
    12  person, including but not limited to facial characteristics, fingerprint
    13  characteristics,  hand characteristics, eye characteristics, vocal char-
    14  acteristics, and any other physical characteristics that can be used  to
    15  identify  a  person  including,  but not limited to: fingerprints; hand-
    16  prints; retina and iris patterns; DNA sequence; voice; gait; and  facial
    17  geometry.
    18    (c)  "Facial recognition" shall mean a biometric application or biome-
    19  tric identifying technology capable of uniquely identifying or verifying
    20  a person by comparing and  analyzing  patterns  based  on  the  person's
    21  facial contours.
    22    2.  Biometric  identifying  technology shall not be the sole factor in
    23  determining the existence of probable  cause  to  place  in  custody  or
    24  arrest an individual.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03827-01-5
        A. 1447                             2

     1    3.  Not  later  than  January  first,  two thousand twenty-seven, each
     2  municipal police department, sheriff's office, and the division of state
     3  police shall  adopt  a  written  policy  that  prohibits  the  stopping,
     4  detention  or  search of any person when such action is solely motivated
     5  by biometric identifying technology.
     6    4. If a municipal police department, sheriff's office, or the division
     7  of state police fails to comply with the provisions of this section, the
     8  division of criminal justice services shall order an appropriate penalty
     9  in the form of the withholding of state funds from such municipal police
    10  department, sheriff's office or the division of state police.
    11    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.