We’ve asked Amazon for comment. At present, it’s not clear if “police” refers to all law enforcement or standard police forces.

The move comes just days after Congressional Democrats introduced a police reform bill that, among other things, would forbid the use of real-time facial recognition for body and dashboard cameras without a judge’s approval. If the bill is eventually signed into law, it theoretically prevents agencies from abusing Rekognition to profile people or otherwise tread on their privacy.

At the same time, there’s little doubt that Rekognition represents a sore point for Amazon in the current climate. In addition to concerns about privacy, people have raised alarms about racial bias and basic accuracy in Amazon’s platform — Rekognition is bound to face heightened scrutiny and opposition when there’s an uproar over racism among the police. A moratorium gets Rekognition out of the spotlight and gives Amazon a chance to rethink how (or if) it shares the system with police going forward.