Case 06: Police Live Facial Recognition
Police Live Facial Recognition: is it legal in the EU, the United States and China?
The system on trial: real-time biometric ID in public. The same product meets three legal realities. Each verdict below is an editorial summary of the instruments cited under it, so every claim can be checked against the official text in one click.
EU: PROHIBITED. US: MOSTLY UNREGULATED. CN: HEAVILY REGULATED
Police Live Facial Recognition: how does the European Union treat it?
PROHIBITED. Banned, with three narrow exceptions. Real-time remote biometric ID in public for law enforcement has been banned since Feb 2025: exceptions: missing/abduction victims, imminent terror or life threats, serious-crime suspects (≥4-yr, Annex II). Even then: prior judicial authorization, a FRIA, registration. Member states may ban entirely. Fines to €35M/7%.
PROHIBITED means: Banned outright: offering or deploying this use is illegal.
Police Live Facial Recognition: how does the United States treat it?
MOSTLY UNREGULATED. No federal law; a municipal patchwork. Bans in ~17+ localities (San Francisco 2019 first; Boston and Portland 2020) and state limits (Maine 2021); much of the country has none, despite documented wrongful arrests from face matches.
MOSTLY UNREGULATED means: No AI-specific obligations in this jurisdiction.
Source: SF §19B: San Francisco facial-recognition ban; Georgetown 2016: The Perpetual Line-Up
Police Live Facial Recognition: how does China treat it?
HEAVILY REGULATED. Permissive for the state, strict for companies. PIPL Art. 26 permits public-security camera networks without individual consent; commercial use faces consent, DPIA, local-storage and mandatory-scan bans, plus a 100k-faces CAC filing duty: the opposite polarity of the EU.
HEAVILY REGULATED means: Legal, but gated by conformity, licensing, oversight and documentation duties.
DUAL STANDARD
Source: PIPL Art. 26: PIPL: public-surveillance carve-out; S37: China Facial Recognition Measures (2025)
The other 5 cases on the board
- AI Hiring Tool: legal in the EU, the US and China?CV screening & candidate ranking. EU: HEAVILY REGULATED. US: HEAVILY REGULATED. CN: MOSTLY UNREGULATED.
- LLM Chatbot: legal in the EU, the US and China?general-purpose customer service. EU: TRANSPARENCY DUTY. US: LIGHT-TOUCH. CN: LICENSED: FILING REQUIRED.
- Medical Diagnostic AI: legal in the EU, the US and China?AI-driven diagnostic device. EU: HEAVILY REGULATED. US: HEAVILY REGULATED. CN: LICENSED: FILING REQUIRED.
- Deepfake Generator: legal in the EU, the US and China?synthetic media tool. EU: TRANSPARENCY DUTY. US: LIGHT-TOUCH. CN: HEAVILY REGULATED.
- Credit Scoring AI: legal in the EU, the US and China?automated creditworthiness. EU: HEAVILY REGULATED. US: HEAVILY REGULATED. CN: HEAVILY REGULATED.
Read the regimes behind these verdicts
- The three regime dossiers explain why European Union, United States and China reach different answers about the same product.
- The Framework Explorer holds every instrument cited on this page, each with its own page, status, provisions and sources.
- Open this case on the interactive board to see the three stamps land side by side.
- The EU AI Act Explorer serves the text of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 itself, one page per provision.
Knowing the verdict is step one. Passing the assessment is the job.
The programs teach the work that follows: classification calls, conformity assessment, filings, documentation, and the judgment to defend every decision.
VERIFIED 29 JUL 2026. The verdicts are editorial summaries of the instruments cited above, not rulings. Study aid, not legal advice: the official texts are always authoritative.