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Hundreds of Milwaukee residents urge Fire and Police Commission to halt facial recognition plans
Summary
At the Feb. 5, 2026 Fire and Police Commission meeting, scores of Milwaukee residents and civil‑society groups urged the commission to block or pause any Milwaukee Police Department adoption of facial recognition technology, citing privacy, bias, and data‑sharing concerns and a proposed trade of 2,500,000 booking photos to a vendor.
Milwaukee '026-02-05 — Hundreds of residents and civil‑society speakers packed a Fire and Police Commission hearing on Wednesday to demand that the panel and the Milwaukee Police Department stop any adoption of facial recognition technology and reject vendor deals that would trade local booking photos for software access.
"I'm here today to speak out against these cameras," said Paul Smith, a commissioner on the city's Office of Equity and Inclusion and vice president of the Milwaukee Intertribal Circle, who described misidentifications and daily harms he said surveillance causes.
Speakers from the ACLU of Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association and a string of local advocacy…
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