cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/67597336
Hi Wisconsin, New Orleanian here.
This past May, Washington Post revealed the police in my city were secretly using the first of its kind facial recognition technology to track citizens in real time.
I'm posting here because I also learned that recently, Milwaukee police have been expressing interest in using facial recognition tech, despite protests from citizens.
New Orleans has been less than transparent about handling all of this, and NOPD has stopped using the tech since WaPo exposed they were violating a city ordinance. However, NOPD has now proposed an updated ordinance which would allow them to legally continue using the realtime tracking and facial recognition tech despite warnings from the ACLU that the ordinance will leave the city vulnerable to the federal government.
"If the federal government wants to use the data from New Orleans facial recognition system to identify and deport undocumented persons in the city, they just have to get a federal warrant to come in and get that data,” Marlow said. “And they’re going to use it for that purpose, regardless of what the local law says.”
“What the New Orleans City Council needs to understand, and they need to understand it right now, is that if they set up a system of this level of power in their city, and they don’t have lockdown control in all instances over the technology and its data, they are placing every resident of New Orleans and every visitor of New Orleans at risk,” Marlow continued. “Not only [is New Orleans] creating the possibility that the federal government could come in and commandeer this equipment and its data to go after people in New Orleans, they’re inviting it.”
The City Council meeting regarding the proposed ordinance is schedule for this Thursday, June 26 at 10:00a.m. CDT.
There is also a Livestream link if you or anyone you know is interested in watching the meeting
Whether you choose to watch or not, I hope you will stay vigilant about what AI and surveillance policy your local law enforcement might be considering and how it relates to your own civil liberties. I find it very odd that in addition to the concerns over police use of facial recognition tech, New Orleans and Wisconsin also share a concerning link to the Peter Thiel owned company Palantir.
From ~2012-2018, the city of New Orleans secretly partnered with Palantir and allowed the company to test it's controversial predictive policing tech.
After this secret contract was exposed, predictive policing and eventually facial recognition technology were banned in New Orleans in 2020. In 2022, the mayor requested the ban be lifted and replaced with an ordinance that would allow some very concerning surveillance practices by law enforcement, and allow facial recognition in certain circumstances as long as it followed the procedure outlined in the ordinance.
This is the same ordinance that WaPo proved NOPD was violating in May of this year, and the same ordinance New Orleans city council will vote to amend this Thursday, June 26, 2025.
Although the city has allegedly not worked with Palantir since the official contract was dissolved in 2018, Project Nola, the private surveillance company NOPD was receiving the facial recognition and real time tracking information from, was established in 2015 by a former New Orleans police officer. During this time, Palantir was still using surveillance tools throughout the city to create and test their new predictive policing tech.
It's important to note that in addition to owning Palantir, Peter Thiel also happens to fund the facial recognition software company Clearview AI. Clearview has been providing facial recognition software to federal agencies such as ICE and multiple local law enforcement agencies around the country since ~2020.