Police in Austin, San Francisco bypass facial recognition ban

As cities and states push to limit the use of facial recognition technologies, some police departments have quietly found a way to continue using the controversial tools: asking for help from other law enforcement agencies that still have access.

Officers in Austin and San Francisco — two of the largest cities where police are banned from using the technology — have repeatedly asked police in neighboring cities to send photos of criminal suspects through their facial recognition programs, according to a review of police documents in the Washington Post.