Boston — A bipartisan group of legislators, technologists and civil‑liberties advocates urged the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to enact recommendations from the special commission on facial‑recognition technology that would tighten police use of the software.

Representative Orlando Ramos, who sponsored H19‑46, told the committee he had filed the bill after municipal moratoria and community concern in Springfield and elsewhere. Senator Creem, who testified in support on the Senate side, said the bill "would require police to obtain a warrant prior to using the facial recognition" in many cases and would add notice and due‑process protections for criminal defendants.

Kate Crawford of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who served on the commission, said the existing state law allowed searches under a "relevant and material" standard that she and other experts believe is too broad; the commission recommended a warrant standard instead.

Technical experts and civil‑liberties groups added detail. Jake LaPeruke of the Center for Democracy & Technology testified the bills would "protect residents from improper surveillance" by requiring a warrant and banning untargeted, continuous facial‑recognition of individuals on video feeds. Eric Learned Miller of UMass Amherst, a member of the special commission, told the committee that face‑recognition systems have inherent error rates — particularly in low‑quality images — and that safeguards are necessary to avoid wrongful identifications.

Proponents said the changes would preserve law‑enforcement access where necessary while protecting privacy and civil liberties; municipal bans still limit some local uses (for example, preventing local departments from buying their own matching systems). The committee heard requests to require centralized processes, defendant notice when technology led to an identification, and prohibitions on untargeted mass surveillance.

Ending: No vote was taken. Chairs said they would continue consultations with police, the attorney general's office and privacy experts to reconcile public‑safety needs and civil‑liberties protections.