ASSEMBLY LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5300

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 13, 2019

      The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5300.

      As reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 5300 requires the Attorney General to arrange for certain testing of facial recognition systems.  Under the provisions of this bill, the Attorney General is required, within 60 days of the bill’s effective date, to arrange for independent, third party testing and auditing of the accuracy of the five most commonly available facial recognition systems by market share, under operational conditions.

      The testing and auditing is required to determine whether there is a statistically significant variation in the accuracy of the facial recognition systems on the basis of race, skin tone, ethnicity, gender, or age of the individuals portrayed in the images, whether or not those categories are applied individually or in combination.

      Under the bill, the Attorney General is required to submit a report to the Legislature containing the results of the testing required by the bill.  The report is to be submitted within 30 days after the completion of the testing.