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These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.

Citing concerns about accuracy and racial bias, the cities banned the technology. So some police officers sought help from other law enforcement agencies.

By
May 18, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Concerns about the accuracy of facial recognition tools have prompted a wave of local and state bans on the technology. (iStock/Getty Images)
11 min

As cities and states push to restrict the use of facial recognition technologies, some police departments have quietly found a way to keep using the controversial tools: asking for help from other law enforcement agencies that still have access.

Officers in Austin and San Francisco — two of the largest cities where police are banned from using the technology — have repeatedly asked police in neighboring towns to run photos of criminal suspects through their facial recognition programs, according to a Washington Post review of police documents.