New Orleans police have secretly been using facial recognition software to monitor citizens in an effort to identify crime suspects, according to a new report.
And while police across the country are increasingly using such technology, an investigation by The Washington Post has found that police in New Orleans have taken it a step further, potentially violating a city ordinance that was designed to prevent false arrests and safeguard their citizens' civil rights.
The cameras belong to Project NOLA, a nonprofit that operates a private network of more than 200 facial recognition cameras that scan the streets for wanted suspects and then automatically sends the information to cops’ phones through an app when a possible match for a suspect is detected, The Post reported.
Bryan Lagarde, a former cop who founded the surveillance video company, had previously said he wanted to help police more closely monitor the city's “crime-heavy areas.”
Police were only supposed to use the software to find “specific suspects in their investigations of violent crimes,” according to the city ordinance.
But The Post’s investigation found, according to court records, that these cameras “played a role in dozens of arrests,” but most uses were never disclosed in police reports and were “not included in the department’s mandatory reports to the city council.”
If an officer wants to scan a face, the ordinance requires police to send a still image to a state-run “fusion center” in Baton Rouge, where various law enforcement agencies collaborate on investigations, The Post reported.
Experts who are trained in identifying faces use AI software would compare the image with a database of photos and only if at least two examiners agree, they would return a “match” before cops approach suspects.
Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, “this is the facial recognition technology nightmare scenario that we have been worried about,” he told The Post.
“This is the government giving itself the power to track anyone — for that matter, everyone — as we go about our lives walking around in public.”
The program was paused in April, according to New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who told The Post that she would be conducting a review and that all automated alerts would be turned off until she is “sure that the use of the app meets all the requirements of the law and policies.”
Project NOLA promoted its cameras for playing a role in the capture of one of 10 inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail just last week.
But the ACLU is calling for the department to “halt the program indefinitely and terminate all use of live-feed facial recognition technology.”
“We cannot ignore the real possibility of this tool being weaponized against marginalized communities, especially immigrants, activists, and others whose only crime is speaking out or challenging government policies. These individuals could be added to Project NOLA's watchlist without the public’s knowledge, and with no accountability or transparency on the part of the police departments,” said Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana.
“Facial recognition technology poses a direct threat to the fundamental rights of every individual and has no place in our cities. We call on the New Orleans Police Department and the City of New Orleans to halt this program indefinitely and terminate all use of live-feed facial recognition technology. The ACLU of Louisiana will continue to fight the expansion of facial recognition systems and remain vigilant in defending the privacy rights of all Louisiana residents.”
