Tell Senator Wiener: Vote NO on AB 1814, the Surveillance Bill
Call your State Senator.
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
I’m calling to ask Senator Wiener to vote NO on AB 1814, the surveillance bill. This bill legitimizes the use of facial recognition by police by allowing them to use it as long as it is not the sole basis for probable cause. We believe facial recognition should not be used in this way at all. This bill threatens people’s privacy and safety using flawed facial-recognition technology.
Background
You have the right to walk down the street without getting surveilled in your everyday business. Everyone does. When someone commits a crime, police might need to make an arrest—but that should only happen when the police have identified a suspect based on solid evidence.
Assemblymember Ting is the author of a bill, AB 1814, that would threaten your privacy. Under this proposal, police would be able to use flawed facial-recognition technology as part of building probable cause for an arrest.
Police in California were prohibited from using real-time facial recognition technology until 2023. AB 1814 is the first bill on the subject since then, and it’s disguised as regulation, as it would prohibit police from using facial recognition as the sole basis for probable cause. But in so doing, it legitimizes police using facial recognition as part of their basis.
(We should note that local governments can still have their own bans or other policies, such as the City’s.)
Facial recognition technology is too flawed, too riddled with biases, too likely to be used to finger innocent people like you as a substitute for real police work. The state should reinstate the ban, not legitimize bogus arrests of innocent people.
The bill is currently in the Senate. Tell Senator Wiener: Vote no on this sneaky spying bill.