WBFO s Kyle Mackie reports.
The new legislation includes facial recognition technology and will force the Lockport City School District to stop using its controversial AEGIS security system, which was activated in January this year, making Lockport one of the first school districts in the country to start using facial recognition technology.
“Facial recognition surveillance never belonged in the school,” said Jim Shultz, a Lockport parent who helped lead local opposition to the technology. “[This legislation] is an important victory for students not only in Lockport but everywhere in the State of New York.”
Jim Shultz spoke to fellow Lockport parents and community leaders at a town hall meeting hosted by the NYCLU in Lockport on Feb. 25, 2020.
New York to Bar Facial Recognition Tech in Schools
The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Monica P. Wallace, would require the Lockport City School District to turn off the 300 digital cameras it installed to feed images to facial recognition software in its buildings. by Thomas J. Prohaska, The Buffalo News / December 23, 2020 Shutterstock/Scharfsinn
New York schools is now illegal, after Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo
signed a temporary ban on their use Tuesday.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman
Monica P. Wallace
, D-
Cheektowaga, would require the
Lockport City School District to turn off the 300 digital cameras it installed to feed images to facial recognition software in its buildings.
23 December 2020 15:17 GMT
Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed into law a moratorium on biometric surveillance tools, including facial recognition, in New York schools. The first-of-its-kind legislation halts the use of a face surveillance system in the Lockport City School District, which was first put into use in January 2020.
“The moratorium on biometric surveillance is a landmark piece of legislation that should serve as a national model to stop the proliferation of faulty, harmful facial recognition technologies in schools,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. “For children, whose appearances change rapidly as they grow, and for people of color and women more broadly, the accuracy of biometric technologies is highly questionable. This is especially important as schools across the state begin to acknowledge the experiences of Black and Brown students being policed in schools and funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline.”
The use of facial recognition security systems in New York schools is now illegal, after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a temporary ban on their use Tuesday.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Monica P. Wallace, D-Cheektowaga, would require the Lockport City School District to turn off the 300 digital cameras it installed to feed images to facial recognition software in its buildings.
A new year also marked the start of a new era for security efforts in Lockportâs public
The district won state Education Department approval for the system late last year and activated it Jan. 2.
The new law temporarily blocks the use of what it calls biometric identifying technology in all schools â public, nonpublic and charter.