Facial Recognition AI System in New Orleans Scrutinized

Civil rights groups are closely watching events unfold in New Orleans as reports surface that a large network of surveillance cameras there are using an artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition program.

The police say the software has been beneficial in helping to capture at least one of the prisoners involved in a mass breakout of the Orleans Parish Justice Center on May 16.

ABC reported that the software was still in use, despite an order from New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick that alerts from the system were to be turned off. She wanted to ensure the application of facial recognition software was legal.

About 200 cameras being used in a city-wide camera surveillance network are equipped with the software. The system is managed by Project N.O.L.A. The group’s website offers the description that it is a non-profit and helps anyone, including cities, “to place cost-subsidized High Definition Crime Cameras, Gunshot Detectors and License Plate Recognition Cameras in needed areas.” It is headquartered and maintains servers at the University of New Orleans.

ABC reported that Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said that “Facial recognition technology poses a direct threat to the fundamental rights of every individual and has no place in our cities.” The ACLU has called on New Orleans area police departments to sever ties with the system.

Jake Laperruque is the deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology. He told ABC that facial recognition cameras are an "unproven, error-prone tool." He said, "This kind of dragnet system belongs in a dystopian sci-fi movie, not in American cities."

Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project N.O.L.A., told ABC that state police provided data on the escapees from the recent prison breakout. "We put that into our facial recognition. It took approximately four minutes to do that and within, literally, less than a minute later we started tracking two of the escapees."

Lagarde said only someone who is wanted by law enforcement should have any concerns. "If you're wanted and we know that you're wanted, you're going to be in trouble," he said. "If you are not wanted, it's going to instantly disregard your face and just move on to the next person."