San Francisco has banned facial recognition. The city uses cameras for car number plates and at airports. Officials say facial recognition will increase security. Police can quickly and cheaply find criminals and missing people. An expert said: "A ban on facial recognition will make [San Francisco] frozen in time with [old] technology."

An official said facial recognition was like "Big Brother" from the book "1984". Big Brother is when governments try to control and spy on everyone. The official said: "We can have security without being a security state [and] good policing without being a police state." He said community information was best to build trust.