To regulate law enforcement use of facial recognition technology, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Lieu (for himself, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill establishes comprehensive federal regulations on how law enforcement agencies can use facial recognition technology. It requires police to obtain court orders before using facial recognition with photo databases, mandates accuracy and bias testing of all systems, and creates civil rights protections to prevent misuse of the technology for surveillance or immigration enforcement.
Who Benefits and How
The general public and civil liberties advocates benefit from strong privacy protections, including requirements that police cannot use facial recognition based on race, ethnicity, or religion, and cannot use it for mass surveillance or immigration enforcement. Individuals subject to facial recognition gain the right to sue for violations and receive up to $50,000 in damages per violation. The National Institute of Standards and Technology receives $5 million annually from 2026-2029 to develop testing standards.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Law enforcement agencies face significant new compliance requirements: they must obtain court orders before using facial recognition, log all searches, submit to annual audits, pass accuracy and bias tests, and publicly report usage statistics disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, and age. State departments of motor vehicles that maintain photo databases must implement new compliance procedures. States and local governments that fail to comply risk losing 15% of their federal crime control grants.
Key Provisions
- Requires court orders before law enforcement can use facial recognition with reference photo databases, with limited emergency exceptions
- Prohibits using facial recognition for surveillance, immigration enforcement, or based on protected characteristics like race, religion, or gender identity
- Mandates annual accuracy and bias testing by NIST; systems that fail cannot be used
- Requires arrested individuals be notified when facial recognition was used against them, including copies of probe images and candidate lists
- Creates civil liability allowing individuals to sue for violations with damages up to $50,000 and removes state sovereign immunity
- Requires law enforcement agencies to purge photos of minors, acquitted individuals, and those released without charges from arrest databases every six months
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology