Currie presses for FLPD to implement a policy covering use of facial recognition software.

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Accountability is a key issue for those pressing for written policies. In July, Christina Currie, an attorney and chair of Fort Lauderdale’s Citizens’ Police Review Board, brought the article on facial recognition use on protesters to a meeting with city leaders. She has been pressing ever since for Fort Lauderdale police to adopt a strict policy on the tech.

“It’s important to make sure this is being used for the purposes intended,” Currie said at the time, “that it’s not misused out of idle curiosity or abuse.”

FLPD’s recently released policy draft would bar officers from using facial recognition to surveil people based solely on race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual identity or during “constitutionally protected activities.” Other oversight measures, which Currie says are a good start, include: having supervisors approve search requests to limit use “to investigative purposes,” as well as warning police against “succumbing to confirmation bias and focusing solely on a ‘top’ search result.”