AI Frontier Institute

Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act of 2025

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S.F. No. 1242, the "Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act of 2025," was introduced in the Minnesota Senate and referred to Judiciary and Public Safety. The official record lists the outcome as "committee," so the bill has not been enacted. If enacted, it would add new sections 626A.50 to 626A.53 to Minnesota Statutes, chapter 626A. Section 626A.50 defines terms. "Ongoing surveillance" means using facial recognition to track an identified individual's movements through public places for more than 72 hours. A single identification does not count. Section 626A.51 would bar agency officers and employees from using facial recognition for ongoing surveillance of a person or group in a public space unless the use supports law enforcement and either a court order has been obtained or exigent circumstances make an order impractical. In the exigent case, an application must be made within 48 hours, and use must stop if the application is denied. Orders would last until the objective is met and no more than 30 days. Courts could grant extensions of up to 30 days each. Use under an order must minimize collecting, retaining, and sharing information about people other than the target. Subdivision 4 allows an aggrieved person to move to suppress evidence obtained in violation of the section. There is a good-faith exception, and prosecutors can appeal. Section 626A.52 requires judges to report order and extension data to the supreme court within 30 days. The supreme court must then publish annual reports, starting one year after the effective date, that include misidentification counts. Section 626A.53 requires a trained officer to review system output before the agency acts on an identification. It also requires each agency head, in consultation with NIST, to set up testing procedures, including accuracy testing across skin tones, ages, and genders, and corrective action when error rates differ.

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