Amid a growing outcry about privacy concerns by civil liberties groups, officials in Orlando, Fla., said Monday that the city’s Police Department was, for now, ending a pilot program to use Amazon Rekognition facial technology.

About two years ago, Amazon introduced an online service that could help identify faces and other objects in images. The retail giant was soon pitching that technology to law enforcement agencies, saying the program could aid criminal investigations by recognizing suspects in photos and videos. The Orlando Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon were among the first to try the program.

The program thrust Amazon into the center of a heated debate around the role of facial recognition in law enforcement. Proponents of the technology see it as a powerful weapon for catching criminals, while critics see it as an instrument of mass surveillance.

In recent weeks, various civil rights organizations had pushed Amazon and law enforcement agencies to not use the image recognition system. They expressed concerns that it could be used to track protesters or others whom authorities see as suspicious, rather than being limited to individuals who are committing crimes.