Facial Recognition in use by New Orleans Police Department
Information Certainty: Documented
Deployment Purpose: Surveillance
| Summary |
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| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
Status and Events:
| Status | Stopped |
|---|---|
| Events | Start (2 January 2016, Documented, , No description) End (2 December 2020, Documented, , No description) |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
Location:
| City | New Orleans (LA) |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | USA |
Description[ ]
In connection with the Real Time Crime Center of New Orleans, the police have been found to use facial recognition since at least 2016, despite the police denying its use. The police use body cameras (Axon) and have used software such as Palantir, for which facial recognition can be easily added on or may be a constitutive feature. In 2020, facial recognition use by NOPD was banned. However in 2022, this is set to be potentially overturned, having been put to the City Council in a vote in May.
This type of software is also used with body camera footage. Body cameras were adopted by the NOPD in 2014 as a police accountability measure, but they’re also a major tool in prosecutions. In 2016, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office started using software to mine and catalog audio and video captured by body cameras. The company announced its business with the New Orleans DA in a 2016 press release. “It makes video completely searchable. The software creates an audio transcript and record of faces and text in each video through an automated system, which means an officer or investigator can type in a person's name or keywords like drugs and search for when and where it was spoken in the video.”3
The police also use advanced software, like the one from Palantir, to automatically analyze the massive troves of data at their disposal, including arrest records, jail phone call logs, parole and probation records, incident reports and interview cards 3
"The term 'employ' used in the [public records request] response might’ve referred to ownership of the tool itself, which we don’t. I apologize for any misunderstanding. Again, the word ‘employ’ was used in the context of ownership... The NOPD does not own Facial Recognition tools," NOPD spokesperson, Kenneth Jones, clarified to Michael Isaac Stein, a reporter with local independent newspaper, The Lens, in November 3
Regardless of one's definition of the term "employ," the NOPD supplied the ACLU with dozens of pages of internal documents last week confirming police usage of the surveillance technology since at least July, 2018. Local law enforcement technically didn't "own" any of the proprietary software, nor did it necessarily license it itself. Instead, NOPD used workarounds in conjunction with federal agencies like the FBI, as well as local organizations including the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LA-SAFE) to utilize identification tools like facial recognition 3
Many emails appear to include photos taken from sources such as individuals' social media and the city's Real Time Crime Monitoring Center, which is technically under the Department of Homeland Security's purview and oversees over 500 cameras in New Orleans, making it per capita one of the country's most heavily surveilled metropolitan areas. Other email responses clarify to inquiring city detectives why certain images could not be analyzed. "Our system requires a full face with clearly designated eye sockets. Your subject is wearing sun glasses [sic] and is too far from the camera to be clearly viewed," reads one message 3
The Real Time Crime Center program launched in 2017, about three years after I moved to the city, and since then invasive security system methods have not only expanded dramatically, they now involve willing citizen participants. One such program, SafeCam Platinum, allows residents and businesses to register their own private cameras with the city, allowing their footage to be accessed by police as needed. SafeCam Platinum's website boasts it has saved the city over 6000 "public safety manpower hours," a not-so-subtle nod to New Orleans' ongoing budgetary disaster 3
A staff of 18 (as of 2018) work at computer stations and monitor camera feeds from around the city using the Motorola Solutions CommandCentral Aware platform. They access real-time video and archived police records to provide information to local partners, and assist with local, state, and federal agencies. Analysts view a 19-foot wrap-around wall of monitors engineered by Christie Digital Systems 2
Also based in New Orleans, Project NOLA is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 that provides real-time crime center capabilities to local law enforcement agencies, including cost-subsidized pan-tilt-zoom cameras, ALPRs, and gunshot detection sensors. The data gathered from these technologies is transmitted to Project NOLA’s NOLA National Crime Center for analysis and is re-broadcasted to local law enforcement agencies and 911 dispatchers, whose staff can view footage from their mobile devices or computers 2
While NOPD still faces budgetary cuts, it remains one of — if not the — highest-funded departments within New Orleans. Not only that, it continues to invest in partnerships with companies like Carbyne, a tech firm with roots in Israeli military intelligence that counts real-life Bond villain, Peter Thiel, as an investor. Carbyne provides third-party 911 management software to help New Orleans' genuinely overwhelmed EMS workers. The service, however, comes at a cost: having users dialing 911 waive their privacy rights. "Carbyne relies on callers submitting themselves to self-surveillance via their own mobile phone," wrote Forbes not long after the deal. "Once a caller uses their Android or iPhone to call 911 (85 percent of emergency calls now come from mobile devices), they receive a text message that asks for permission to get their precise location and access video from their smartphone camera." Another company, Briefcam, "can locate people based on their clothes or cars and with the ability to zoom in from a distance of two football fields," and cost taxpayers nearly $3 million. New Orleans officials claim to have stopped using the program late last year 1
References
- a b "New Orleans police lied about facial recognition tech for years". (2020) <https://www.inputmag.com/culture/new-orleans-police-lied-for-years-about-facial-recognition-technology> Accessed: 2022-06-29
- a b c "New Orleans Real-Time Crime Center - Atlas of Surveillance". (2020) <https://atlasofsurveillance.org/real-time-crime-centers/new-orleans-real-time-crime-center> Accessed: 2022-06-29
- a b c d e f "Neighborhoods Watched". (2021) <https://surveillance.thelensnola.org/> Accessed: 2022-06-28