Celtics Players Pen Op-Ed Opposing Lack of Regulation on Facial Recognition Tech

The Boston Celtics players, in an op-ed for the Boston Globe, decried Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's decision to remove regulations from recent police reform legislation regarding the use of facial recognition technology. 

The Celtics wrote, in part:

"This bias against Black people and other people of color is baked into the criminal legal system, and it's perpetuated at every level, including the tools that police departments use. That's why we were disappointed to see that Governor Charlie Baker, in his amendments to the police reform legislation, removed the bill's proposed regulations of government use of facial recognition technology. Baker's rejection is deeply troubling because this technology supercharges racial profiling by police and has resulted in the wrongful arrests of innocent people.

"Studies confirm that face recognition surveillance technology is flawed and biased, with significantly higher error rates when used against people of color and women. The ACLU of Massachusetts tested a widely available face recognition application last year, comparing official headshots of 188 New England athletes with a database of mugshots. Unsurprisingly, 27 professional athletes, including two Celtics players, were falsely matched."

Along with the issues of racial bias in facial recognition software, the Celtics also cited the lack of transparency with the policing tool, noting that "facial surveillance is used in secret, without any oversight. Even defense attorneys don't always find out when it's been used to identify their clients. That's because police departments aren't always required to disclose their use of the technology to criminal defendants."

Members of the Celtics have utilized their platform to raise social and racial issues in the past. Jaylen Brown has spoken with reporters about the third verse in the Star-Spangled Banner that mentions slavery and how systemic racism is deeply rooted in the United States, and joined a protest in Atlanta in May after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 

Marcus Smart did the same in Boston.

"We wanted to come out here and let our voice be heard because we stand for the truth, and we stand for justice," Smart told NBC Sports' A. Sherrod Blakely at the time. "And we won't stop until we get justice. That's really what this is about."

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens expressed a message of support for his players in early June amid those protests.

"I think the thing I wanted them to know is that every decent person is hurting. Every decent person feels the pain of the African American community," he told reporters. "But I also don't want to pretend that I know the exact, distinct pain. What I wanted them to know is that I'm with them. I thought that was really important."