Special Meeting Scheduled To Debate Police Use Of Facial Recognition Technology

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WAMC

City councilors in Springfield, Massachusetts are again planning to debate a facial recognition technology ban at a special meeting Monday.

The council has discussed and debated a proposed moratorium on facial surveillance technology at several meetings over last five months.

Sponsors of the ordinance say the city should press pause on something that has been shown to be inaccurate especially when identifying people of color.

 Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood has argued the ordinance could close the door to just shopping for a crime-fighting tool.

" The reason why I am totally against bans and moratoriums is that it would probably stop companies from coming to us and showing us what they have," Clapprood said at  City Council Public Safety Committee meeting last month.

Northampton and a handful of other Massachusetts communities have banned the technology.

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The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.