A Boston suburb has voted to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police and other city departments.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone signed an order Friday banning the city government from using the technology that critics say invades privacy and can often be wrong.
The Somerville City Council had voted Thursday 11-0 to bar the technology, sending the measure to Curtatone for approval.
Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, the sponsor of the measure, said its passage is a "reminder that we are in charge of our own society."
Ewen-Campen worked on the issue with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU, says Somerville is the first East Coast city to prohibit government use of the technology.
San Francisco last month became the first city in the nation to ban the technology.
