Prohibits the use of facial recognition and biometric information as the sole factor in determining the existence of probable cause to place in custody or arrest an individual.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1447
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 9, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to the use of facial
recognition and biometric information for determining probable cause
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 837-x of the executive law, as amended by chapter
2 138 of the laws of 2023, is renumbered section 837-y and a new section
3 837-z is added to read as follows:
4 § 837-z. Use of biometric identifying technology. 1. As used in this
5 section:
6 (a) "Biometric identifying technology" shall mean any computer soft-
7 ware, algorithm, product, or application that collects or electronically
8 analyzes biometric information for the purposes of identifying an indi-
9 vidual, including but not limited to facial recognition.
10 (b) "Biometric information" shall mean any measurable physical or
11 behavioral characteristics that are attributable to an individual
12 person, including but not limited to facial characteristics, fingerprint
13 characteristics, hand characteristics, eye characteristics, vocal char-
14 acteristics, and any other physical characteristics that can be used to
15 identify a person including, but not limited to: fingerprints; hand-
16 prints; retina and iris patterns; DNA sequence; voice; gait; and facial
17 geometry.
18 (c) "Facial recognition" shall mean a biometric application or biome-
19 tric identifying technology capable of uniquely identifying or verifying
20 a person by comparing and analyzing patterns based on the person's
21 facial contours.
22 2. Biometric identifying technology shall not be the sole factor in
23 determining the existence of probable cause to place in custody or
24 arrest an individual.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03827-01-5
A. 1447 2
1 3. Not later than January first, two thousand twenty-seven, each
2 municipal police department, sheriff's office, and the division of state
3 police shall adopt a written policy that prohibits the stopping,
4 detention or search of any person when such action is solely motivated
5 by biometric identifying technology.
6 4. If a municipal police department, sheriff's office, or the division
7 of state police fails to comply with the provisions of this section, the
8 division of criminal justice services shall order an appropriate penalty
9 in the form of the withholding of state funds from such municipal police
10 department, sheriff's office or the division of state police.
11 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
