The New York City Council - File #: Int 0233-2024

• File #: Int 0233-2024
• Version: A
• Name: Establishment of a police department policy for using facial recognition technology and regular audits to ensure compliance.
• Type: Introduction
• Status: Enacted (Mayor's Desk for Signature)
• Committee: Committee on Public Safety
• On agenda: 2/28/2024
• Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the establishment of a police department policy for using facial recognition technology and regular audits to ensure compliance
• Sponsors: Crystal Hudson, Gale A. Brewer, Amanda Farías, Julie Won, Tiffany Cabán, Nantasha M. Williams, Shaun Abreu, Christopher Marte, Shekar Krishnan, Carmen N. De La Rosa, Farah N. Louis, Chi A. Ossé, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Alexa Avilés, Sandy Nurse, Shahana K. Hanif, Carlina Rivera , Chris Banks, Darlene Mealy
• Council Member Sponsors: 19
• Summary: This legislation would require the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to publish on its website a written policy that establishes procedures and regulations for the Department’s use of facial recognition technologies. The legislation would also require that the NYPD conduct an annual audit of the Department’s use of facial recognition technology, share the findings of such audit with the Department of Investigation, and post such findings on the Department’s website.

Date	Ver.	Prime Sponsor	Action By	Action	Result
4/10/2025	A	Crystal Hudson	City Council	Sent to Mayor by Council
4/10/2025	A	Crystal Hudson	City Council	Approved by Council	Pass
4/10/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Hearing Held by Committee
4/10/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Amendment Proposed by Comm
4/10/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Amended by Committee
4/10/2025	A	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Approved by Committee	Pass
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Oversight and Investigations	Laid Over by Committee
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Oversight and Investigations	Hearing Held by Committee
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Technology	Laid Over by Committee
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Technology	Hearing Held by Committee
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Laid Over by Committee
2/19/2025	*	Crystal Hudson	Committee on Public Safety	Hearing Held by Committee
2/28/2024	*	Crystal Hudson	City Council	Referred to Comm by Council
2/28/2024	*	Crystal Hudson	City Council	Introduced by Council

Int. No. 233-A

By Council Members Hudson, Brewer, Farías, Won, Cabán, Williams, Abreu, Marte, Krishnan, De La Rosa, Louis, Ossé, Gutiérrez, Avilés, Nurse, Hanif, Rivera, Banks and Mealy

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the establishment of a police department policy for using facial recognition technology and regular audits to ensure compliance

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 14 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 14-188.1 to read as follows:

§ 14-188.1 Facial recognition policy and evaluation. a. The department shall create and post on its website a written policy that establishes procedures for the department’s use of facial recognition technologies. Such policy shall include, but need not be limited to, the following information:

1. a description of the department’s use of facial recognition technologies;

2. restrictions placed on access and use of such technologies by department personnel,  including procedures for supervisory approval and internal oversight to safeguard against improper use of such technologies; and

3. data retention and use policies, including policies applicable to department personnel utilizing such searches through third-party platforms.

b. The policy established pursuant to subdivision a of this section shall include guidelines related to the modification of the original image used for comparison analysis by facial recognition technology. Such policy, at a minimum, shall require the documentation of any modifications made to an image, including a description of any such modifications and the date such modifications were made, and shall further require the maintenance of such documentation and copies of all modified images utilized for facial recognition analysis.

c. The department shall conduct an annual audit of its use of facial recognition technology. Such audit shall be documented and provided to the department of investigation and published on the department’s website. Such audit shall include the following information:

(1) the total number of comparison requests made by an investigating officer to apply facial recognition technology to a specific image;

(2) the total number of instances in which facial recognition technology is applied to a specific image, disaggregated by the total number of possible matches, image rejections, and no-matches;

(3) the total number of instances in which facial recognition technology is applied to an image associated with an investigation for a crime classified as a felony, disaggregated by murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny of an automobile; and

(4) the total number of instances in which facial recognition technology is applied to an image associated with an investigation for a misdemeanor.

§ 2. This local law takes effect September 1, 2025.

Session 13

JDK

LS 11390

3/18/25