On March 31st, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law SB 6280, a bill aimed at regulating state and local government agencies’ use of facial recognition services. An overview of the law’s provisions can be found here.
Notably, Governor Inslee vetoed Section 10 of the bill, which aimed to establish a legislative task force that would study and provide recommendations regarding various issues related to facial recognition services (including “potential abuses and threats posed by the use of facial recognition services” and the “quality, accuracy, and efficacy” of a particular facial recognition service). Governor Inslee stated that the task force was not funded in the existing budget, and recommended instead that the legislature work with the Ruckelshaus Center in crafting a “situation assessment” that would inform the creation of a task force in a subsequent legislative session.
The new law is scheduled to go into effect on June 11, 2020.