Amid an increase in violent crime, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) is moving forward on the use of facial recognition software in the wake of the City Council reversing a ban on the surveillance technology earlier this year.
Critics of the technologies, however, see it as unreliable, discriminatory toward Blacks and women and leading to potential violations of the Fourth Amendment.
NOPD did not respond to a request for comment about how it intends to utilize the technology, but officers have told other publications that no arrests or search warrants will result from facial recognition software matches. The technology would simply aid police in continuing investigations to see if they can pinpoint viable suspects through other means.
New Orleans-based Eye on Surveillance (EOS), a community group that opposes the expansion of surveillance technologies, told the Louisiana Record in an emailed statement that $10 million has been allocated to the city’s Real Time Crime Center over the past five years, with no resulting data showing the surveillance tools can mitigate crime and violence in the city.
“EOS stands against the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement due to a lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness,” the EOS statement says. “Meanwhile, an abundance of evidence demonstrates that the tech contributes to racial discrimination and violations of Fourth Amendment protections.”
A City Council ordinance defines the facial recognition process as an automated or quasi-automated system that captures data about an individual based on facial characteristics.
EOS points to a 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study that found facial recognition software leads to higher rates of false positives for women, African-Americans and particularly Black women.
The group also expressed concerns about the invasiveness of the technology since it allows police to surveil protesters or crime witnesses through the use of outdoor camera systems around the city.