New Orleans is considering a new ordinance that could allow police to utilize facial recognition technology to track wanted individuals and report on missing persons. This would mark a significant shift from the city's current stance against using such technology as a surveillance tool. Although officials claim the aim is not to surveil the public, the draft contains numerous references to "surveillance." If passed, New Orleans would be the first city in the U.S. to formally implement real-time facial recognition, raising concerns over privacy and civil liberties.
In an emailed statement, a police spokesperson said the department "does not surveil the public," and that surveillance is "not the goal of this ordinance revision." But the word "surveillance" appears in the proposed ordinance dozens of times, including explicitly giving police authority to use "facial surveillance."
If the rule passes, New Orleans would become the first U.S. city to formally allow facial recognition as a tool for surveilling residents in real time.
According to the draft of a proposed ordinance posted to a city website, police would be permitted to use automated facial recognition tools to identify and track the movements of wanted subjects, missing people or suspected perpetrators of serious crimes.
Over the past two years, the department relied on a privately owned network of cameras equipped with facial recognition software to constantly monitor the streets for wanted people and automatically ping an app on officers' mobile phones.
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