Publication: The Hill

Cities and states are leading the crackdown on using facial recognition as lawmakers in Congress struggle to find a path to address concerns over the emerging technology.

Privacy and civil rights advocates have castigated facial recognition as overly invasive and potentially discriminatory. But with Washington appearing slow to act, critics are now targeting their efforts at the state and local level, where they believe legislation to restrict the technology can move faster and tougher action is likelier.

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And in California, legislation that would bar the installation of facial recognition software in police body cameras is making its way through the Senate.

“By adding facial recognition software to police body cams, you are deploying thousands of cameras in California immediately and surveilling ordinary citizens 24 hours a day,” California Assemblyman Phil Ting told The Hill, explaining the impetus behind the bill. “I don’t know that ordinary citizens like [that surveillance].”

Publication: San Jose Mercury

State lawmakers believe too many California homeowners still struggle to build granny flats, with high fees, construction costs and regulations stalling even the most careful plans.

A handful of proposals in Sacramento would expand the years-long efforts to clear hurdles for homeowners interested in building auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs) on their property. The measures would close some loopholes and cut more red tape in laws adopted in the last three years to ease the construction process for the units.

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Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, has proposed streamlining the local approval process. His bill, AB 68, would reduce the deadline for municipalities to review and approve auxiliary units from 120 to 60 days. It would also prohibit towns and cities from enacting laws aimed at restricting the units, such as parking and lot size requirements.

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Ting said encouraging ADU construction is a way to bring more housing to communities with minimal disruption. “The real goal is to get more housing production up and down the state,” he said.

Publication: KRON-TV/San Francisco Bay Area

SACRAMENTO (KRON) – President Trump taking aim at California’s plan to provide health care coverage to children and young adults, regardless of immigration status.

Assembly Budget Chairman Phil Ting says lawmakers knew this could be a fight, but he says it’s  a fight worth having.

“We’re not going to be bullied by the president. Our people, our voters feel a strong sense that we should be insuring everyone here, if we can and that’s the goal. We’re going to continue on that course, cause that’s the right thing to do,” Ting said.

Publication: San Francisco Examiner

A new state transparency law will take effect Monday that sets a short time frame for law enforcement across California to release body camera footage in serious cases, including police shootings.

Under Assembly Bill 748, law enforcement agencies will have to release the footage within 45 days of an “critical incident,” unless doing so would interfere with an investigation.

The legislation from Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, is intended to create a uniform process for releasing body camera footage and to help law enforcement build trust with communities.

“That trust can’t be built between communities and law enforcement unless the public can see the footage,” Ting said in a recent interview.

Ting said he modeled the legislation after a policy adopted last year by the Los Angeles Police Commission. The commission created the policy after the Los Angeles Police Department appeared to selectively release footage from police shootings depending on whether the suspect was armed.

“When push came to shove, it could just be denied just because they felt like it,” Ting said of requests for body camera footage.

Publication: ABC 7 KRCR News

A new California law requiring the release of law enforcement body camera footage goes into effect on Monday, July 1.

Assembly Bill 748 will require the release of recordings from body-worn cameras within 45 days of an incident, including if officers fired shots or if a use-of-force causes death or great bodily harm.

The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) and signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2018.

According to Ting, prior to the passage of AB 748, California had no consistent policy regarding the release of body camera recordings.

Publication: Courthouse News Service

Yielding to worries that facial recognition technology could exacerbate racial injustices, a major supplier of law enforcement cameras said Thursday it won’t be adding the technology to its police body cameras.

Axon, which sells stun guns, body cameras and cellphone software to law enforcement agencies in over 100 countries, is banning the implementation of facial recognition capabilities in its body cameras. The Arizona-based and publicly traded company says it will follow the recommendation of its board of ethics and continue improving the technology before selling it to law enforcement.

“Face recognition technology is not currently reliable enough to ethically justify its use on body-worn cameras,” the ethics board said in a report.

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Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, says Axon has been supportive of his proposed statewide ban and the lawmaker called Thursday’s announcement “courageous.”

“Axon is raising the bar from a moral and ethical point of view,” Ting said in a phone interview.

Ting’s proposal, Assembly Bill 1215, has cleared the Assembly and could be voted on in the Senate this summer.

Publication: CalMatters

When Berenice Solis of Bakersfield received a direct deposit of $6,775 from the government this past March, her mind raced.

She could finally take her three daughters, ages 4, 6 and 9, on a trip to Disneyland. Then she thought about her goal of buying a house. Or upgrading her car, which is starting to feel cramped as her girls grow.

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Solis, 40, a part-time teacher’s aide in Bakersfield. Her husband, Jose, is an elementary school teacher. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is the money we’re going to get!’ We can do so much.”

The money came from the Earned Income Tax Credit, one of the country’s principal tools to boost the incomes of low-wage workers who are struggling to make ends meet. 

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“There are so many folks really living on the edge in California today,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who championed expansion of the credit,  after lawmakers voted to pass the governor’s expansion last week. “Having a few hundred more dollars or even a few thousand more dollars makes a huge difference to their everyday lives.”