San Francisco has banned the use of facial recognition software by police and other agencies, becoming the first major American city to take such action.

The city's Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 in favor of the action while in different parts of the country that technology and others like bit are becoming more commonplace.

“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who sponsored the bill said. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”

Even with unease about the technologies spread after its role in helping law enforcement identify and apprehend the shooter of a newsroom in Annapolis, MD, many see it as a public good.

“It is ridiculous to deny the value of this technology in securing airports and border installations,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University to the New York Times. “It is hard to deny that there is a public safety value to this technology.”

Even the San Francisco Police Officers Association, a union for the officers hoped officers would be able to use the technology for the public good and attempt to help perfect it.

“Although we understand that it’s not a 100 percent accurate technology yet, it’s still evolving,” said Tony Montoya, the president of the association. “I think it has been successful in at least providing leads to criminal investigators.”

Despite the goodwill some may hold for the technology ACLU Northern California lawyer Matt Cagle called it “incompatible with a healthy democracy” and commended San Francisco on being able to “prevent the unleashing of this dangerous technology against the public.”

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation cities like Las Vegas, Orlando, San Jose, San Diego, New York City, Boston, Detroit still use the technology.

Now check these out:

Amazon's Facial Recognition Tool Is Used By Law Enforcement. It Identified Black Members Of Congress As Criminals.

AI Technology Struggled To Detect My Face, Until I Put A White Mask Over It

Brooklyn Landlord Wants To Install Facial Recognition Technology Outside Mostly Black Housing Complex

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