New Orleans has emerged as a flashpoint in debates over real-time facial recognition technology. The city’s leaders are weighing a landmark ordinance that, if passed, would make New Orleans the first U.S. city to formally legalize continuous facial surveillance by police officers.
The move follows revelations that, for two years, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) quietly used automated alerts from a privately operated camera network known as Project NOLA that bypassed the strictures of the city’s 2022 ordinance which explicitly banned such practices. Project NOLA is a non-profit surveillance network founded by ex-police detective Bryan Lagarde.
Despite this, Project NOLA’s network was set to continuously and automatically scan public spaces. Every face that passed within view was compared in real time, and officers were pinged via an app whenever a watchlist match occurred, leaving no requirement for supervisory oversight, independent verification, or adherence to reporting standards.
Opponents argue that automated surveillance everywhere in public spaces raises profound threats to privacy, civil rights, and due process. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana described the system as a “facial recognition technology nightmare” that enables the government to “track us as we go about our daily lives.”
The wrongful arrest of Randal Reid based on misidentification from still-image facial recognition is touted as highlighting the real-world dangers of facial recognition. Reid is a 29‑year‑old Black logistics analyst from Georgia who was wrongfully arrested in late 2022 and held for six days due to a false facial recognition match.
The ACLU has urged the City Council to reimpose a moratorium and demand an independent audit covering privacy compliance, algorithmic bias, evidence admissibility, record retention, and public awareness. The organization said that NOPD currently lacks any system for logging or disclosing facial-recognition-derived evidence, and Project NOLA operates outside official oversight entirely.
A vote by the City Council is expected later this month. If passed, NOPD and any authorized third party will be legally empowered to scan live public feeds using facial recognition, provided reports are submitted according to the new law.
Meanwhile, NOPD is awaiting the outcome of its internal audit and Kirkpatrick has stated that policy revisions will be guided by the council’s decisions. Meanwhile, the ACLU and partners are preparing to escalate their opposition, pushing for either outright prohibition or deeply strengthened accountability measures.
The decision facing New Orleans encapsulates the broader tension between embracing AI-based public safety tools and protecting civil liberties. Proponents emphasize the edge that real-time intelligence can provide in stopping violent crime and responding to emergencies, while critics warn that indiscriminate surveillance erodes privacy, civil rights, and due-process safeguards.
A few things I feel are very important that none of the recent June articles about this mention:
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The city has managed to keep this all relatively under wraps. Few people are even aware of this, and even if they are they are not aware of the level of surveillance.
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This seems to be being kept in the dark even by people that we should be able to trust. I only found out about the City Council vote this month bc I make a habit of searching for updates about this every so often. I cannot find any information about when the vote is actually scheduled, just sometimes at the end of June. This is the last week of June so presumably this week?
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State Police and ICE can’t be regulated by city government. There is a permanent state police force in New Orleans that was established as of last year by Governor Landry.
I believe they have continued using this technology however they please, and there is no real way for the city to regulate how they use it, and who they share it with.
EDIT: The city council meeting is this coming Thursday
Thursday, June 26
10:00a City Council Facial Recognition Meeting – City Council Chamber, 1300 Perdido St., Second Floor West
Just a reminder that it’s illegal to wear masks in New Orleans unless it’s Carnivale.
Wow, I didn’t even know that. Louisiana State law. That some dumb fucking bullshit.
https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/law.aspx?d=78402
They make an exception for medical masks, but I also saw that video of a protestor getting hassled and arrested for a medical mask recently.
I guess I’m just going to have to start using face paint to trick their cams
I mean, Louisiana’s best governor was the Kingfisher in my opinion and that guy was corrupt as fuck.
If there’s a state that should really Thank God for Mississippi, it’s Louisiana.
Palantir had a contract with New Orleans starting around ~2012 to create their predictive policing tech that scans surveillance cameras for very vague details and still misidentifies people.
It’s very similar to Lavender, the tech they use to identify members of Hamas and attack with drones. This results in misidentified targets ~10% of the time, according to the IDF (likely it’s a much higher misidentification rate than 10%).
Palantir picked Louisiana over somewhere like San Francisco bc they knew it would be a lot easier to violate rights and privacy here and get away with it.
Whatever they decide in New Orleans on Thursday during this Council meeting that nobody cares about, will likely be the first of its kind on the books legal basis to track civilians in the U.S. and allow the federal government to take control over that ability whenever they want. This could also set a precedent for use in other states.
Guess who’s running the entire country right now, and just gave high ranking army contracts to Palantir employees for “no reason” while they are also receiving a multimillion dollar federal contract to create an insane database on every American and giant data centers are being built all across the country.
Also unless you claim to be a member of ICE, I assume
Thanks to the KKK, I assume.
TLDR: New Orleans is poised to become the first U.S. city to legalize real-time police facial recognition surveillance, despite a 2022 ban. The push follows revelations that NOPD secretly used Project NOLA’s 200+ AI cameras for two years, making 34+ arrests without oversight. Proponents argue it’s vital for crime-fighting, citing Bourbon Street shootings and jailbreaks, while critics warn of dystopian privacy erosion and racial bias, referencing wrongful arrests like Randal Reid’s. With 70% public approval but fierce ACLU opposition, the vote could set a dangerous precedent: privatized mass surveillance with zero accountability.
~2012ish: Palantir receives contract with city of New Orleans
2015: Privately owned Project Nola surveillance cam program created
2018: City cancels very shady contract with Palantir that helped them create and test their predictive policing tech
2020: Peter Thiel becomes major investor in Clearview AI facial recognition technology. Free trials are given to ICE and multiple local law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
Late 2020: Ban on facial recognition tech and predictive policing in New Orleans
2022: ~18 months later, Cantrell requests City Council lift the ban, and it is replaced with shady surveillance ordinance giving the city some very concerning privileges in certain circumstances
2024: Cantrell says she won’t fight Landry establishing Troop Nola as a permanent police presence in the city, despite concerns from civil rights advocacy groups
Feb 2025: Forbes reports that Clearview AI remains unprofitable due to multiple ongoing lawsuits and previous inability to secure federal contracts. The company says future focus will be large federal contracts.
May 2025: Washington Post reveals NOPD has been ignoring the fairly lax laws regarding facial recognition tech in the 2022 surveillance ordinance while working with Project Nola. NOPD pauses use of tech, but Troop Nola and federal agencies continue use bc they’re not under city jurisdiction
oh I know they’re not the first ones to get it but I do believe they’re the first ones to put the legal precedent or at least that’s what the article says.
I wasn’t arguing with you, everything you said is correct.
Just adding more details and the timeline of events that makes this all even more “what the actual fuck is happening?”
ahh very good, sorry for the misunderstanding.