 Hello, my name is Nathan Shears. My pleasure to speak with you this morning. I represent the Electronic Frontier Foundation in support of AB-1215, the Body, Camera, Accountability Act. Technology does have the power to improve our lives. It can make our government more accountable and efficient and expose us to new information. But it can also invade our privacy and chill our free speech. When communities across the state called for broader implementation of police body camera usage, they did so with hopes that greater transparency and accountability would facilitate trust between residents, particularly those in marginalized communities, and the officers sworn to protect them. However, today we stand at the crossroads as face recognition technology can now be interfaced directly with body worn cameras in real time, transforming a tool intended to improve accountability into a mass biometric surveillance network. Face recognition technology has disproportionately high error rates for women and people of color, making matters worse. Law enforcement agencies conducting face surveillance often rely on images pulled from mugshot databases, which include a disproportionate number of people of color due to racial discrimination or a criminal justice system. As a result, face surveillance will exacerbate historical biases born of and contributing to unfair police practices in Black and Latinx neighborhoods. Public safety requires trust between law enforcement and the communities they are sworn to protect. The utilization of face recognition technology and connection with police body cameras would force Californians to decide between actively avoiding interaction and cooperation with law enforcement or having their images collected, analyzed, and stored as perpetual candidates of suspicion. Not only would this further erode community relationships with law enforcement, but in fact escalate the likelihood of a tragic outcome to each interaction. We urge you to vote aye on AB 1215. Thank you.