New Orleans has become the first U.S. city with a live, real‑time facial recognition surveillance system — but it’s not run by the government. A private nonprofit, Project NOLA, operates more than 5,000 cameras, with about 200 equipped for live facial recognition, scanning people in public spaces like the French Quarter. The system matches faces against a “hot list” of roughly 250 individuals and can instantly alert monitors when someone appears.
The expansion happened largely due to private initiative and political inaction, raising major questions about oversight, accountability, and who should control such powerful surveillance tools.
Summary of: Live cameras are tracking faces in New Orleans. Who should control them?, NPR [nwpb.org]
