Int. No. 1195
By Council Members Hudson, Brewer and Gutiérrez
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the establishment of a police department policy for using facial recognition technology and regular audits to ensure compliance
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 14 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 14-188.1 to read as follows:
§ 14-118.1 Facial recognition policy and evaluation. a. The department, after considering information from entities with expertise in surveillance technologies and privacy, shall create and post on its website, a written policy that establishes procedures and regulations for the department’s use of facial recognition technologies. Such policy shall include, but need not be limited to, the following information: a description of the department’s use of facial recognition technologies; restrictions placed on access and use of such technologies by department personnel, including procedures for supervisory approval and internal oversight to safeguard against improper use of such technologies; and data retention and use policies, including policies applicable to department personnel utilizing such searches through third-party platforms.
b. The policy established pursuant to subdivision a of this section shall include guidelines related to the modification of the original image used for comparison analysis by facial recognition technology, which at a minimum shall require that any modifications made to an image be documented, including through maintaining records describing any such change made, the date such changes were made, and retained copies of all modified images utilized for facial recognition analysis.
c. The department shall conduct biannual audits of the its use of facial recognition technology. Such audits shall be documented and provided to the department of investigation, and published on the department’s website. Such audits shall include a log of each search conducted using facial recognition technology, and for each such search include the following information:
(1) the date search was conducted;
(2) the name of personnel accessing the facial recognition technology;
(3) the name of the facial recognition technology used, including identification of any governmental or private database utilized for such search;
(4) the purpose the search was conducted;
(5) whether an image was modified prior to analysis, and if so, a description of the alteration or enhancement made to such image; and
(7) whether the search yielded match candidates.
§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.
JW
LS 11390
9/13/23