cambridge city hall

Cambridge Becomes Fourth Massachusetts Community To Ban Municipal Facial Recognition Use

A bill is currently before the state House that would ban government use of biometric technology until the legislature regulates how agencies can adopt it.

  • By Haley Samsel
  • Jan 15, 2020

The city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts voted on Monday to become the fourth community in Massachusetts to ban the municipal use of facial recognition software, extending the state’s reputation as a hub for growing debate over the technology.

Cambridge, the home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among other universities, took its first steps to restrict the use of facial recognition after the communities of Brookline, Northampton and Somerville passed similar bans last year.

The sudden increase in facial recognition bans across the state can be attributed to a campaign led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts focused on “pressing pause” on government use of the software, which the group says has accuracy issues, particularly for people of color. Several studies have found that facial recognition software is less accurate when identifying people of color versus white people.

Due to those advocacy efforts, a bill is before the state House that would implement a statewide moratorium on the use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies, including analyzing a person’s walk or voice, until the legislature regulates how agencies can use the technology.

“Massachusetts cities and towns are stepping up to ensure that face surveillance technology doesn’t get out ahead of our basic rights,” Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Now, Beacon Hill [the capitol] must also lead the nation by passing a statewide moratorium on this technology until there are civil liberties protections in place.”

In a tweet, Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern said: “Cambridge joins a small but growing number of cities who are stepping up to protect residents from intrusive and undemocratic technology.”

 

 

The development comes as states and cities across the country weigh the benefits and potential abuses of facial recognition technology. Security companies and law enforcement agencies have argued that the software can play an important role in keeping people safe by allowing officers to more quickly identify a criminal suspect or remove a banned person from a property before an incident breaks out.

Congress has yet to weigh in on the issue as cities in California and Massachusetts have passed municipal bans. California has implemented a three-year moratorium on law enforcement use of facial recognition in police body cameras, while the Washington state legislature is weighing a new bill that would require agencies to file “accountability reports” on how they are using the software in order to prevent ongoing surveillance.

About the Author

Haley Samsel is an Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Report: 47 Percent of Security Service Providers Are Not Yet Using AI or Automation Tools

    Trackforce, a provider of security workforce management platforms, today announced the launch of its 2025 Physical Security Operations Benchmark Report, an industry-first study that benchmarks both private security service providers and corporate security teams side by side. Based on a survey of over 300 security professionals across the globe, the report provides a comprehensive look at the state of physical security operations. Read Now

    • Guard Services

  • Identity Governance at the Crossroads of Complexity and Scale

    Modern enterprises are grappling with an increasing number of identities, both human and machine, across an ever-growing number of systems. They must also deal with increased operational demands, including faster onboarding, more scalable models, and tighter security enforcement. Navigating these ever-growing challenges with speed and accuracy requires a new approach to identity governance that is built for the future enterprise. Read Now

  • Eagle Eye Networks Launches AI Camera Gun Detection

    Eagle Eye Networks, a provider of cloud video surveillance, recently introduced Eagle Eye Gun Detection, a new layer of protection for schools and businesses that works with existing security cameras and infrastructure. Eagle Eye Networks is the first to build gun detection into its platform. Read Now

  • Report: AI is Supercharging Old-School Cybercriminal Tactics

    AI isn’t just transforming how we work. It’s reshaping how cybercriminals attack, with threat actors exploiting AI to mass produce malicious code loaders, steal browser credentials and accelerate cloud attacks, according to a new report from Elastic. Read Now

  • Pragmatism, Productivity, and the Push for Accountability in 2025-2026

    Every year, the security industry debates whether artificial intelligence is a disruption, an enabler, or a distraction. By 2025, that conversation matured, where AI became a working dimension in physical identity and access management (PIAM) programs. Observations from 2025 highlight this turning point in AI’s role in access control and define how security leaders are being distinguished based on how they apply it. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • Compact IP Video Intercom

    Viking’s X-205 Series of intercoms provide HD IP video and two-way voice communication - all wrapped up in an attractive compact chassis.

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”