City commissioners and city management are at odds over what Long Beach should do about facial recognition technology, with two advisory bodies saying it should be paused or banned and city management saying the city is already taking steps to safeguard residents’ privacy.

The Equity & Human Relations Commission is no longer asking for the creation of a community oversight commission to monitor future developments in police surveillance, saying such a body would do more harm than good.

“While some populations are being harmed by this technology at higher rates than others, all residents lose when government deploys emerging technology in an indiscriminate and secretive manner,” states the commission’s final white paper on facial recognition tech that sums up the panel’s thinking.

A draft letter from the Equity and Human Relations Commission says, in part, “that racist technology cannot be reformed, it must be banned altogether.”

“While some populations are being harmed by this technology at higher rates than others, all residents lose when government deploys emerging technology in an indiscriminate and secretive manner,” states a January 2022 white paper on facial recognition tech that sums up the thinking of the commission.