Oliver Thomas withdraws controversial facial recognition ordinance in New Orleans — for now BY SARAH RAVITS 31 mins ago
New Orleans City Council member and mayoral candidate Oliver Thomas Aug. 21 quietly withdrew, at least for now, a controversial ordinance granting police the authority to use facial recognition technology to spy on people in public.
The decision has drawn cautious optimism from civil rights groups, though Thomas could bring the ordinance up again as soon as Sept. 11.
If passed, the ordinance would authorize the use of facial recognition technology for real-time surveillance by the New Orleans Police Department or a third-party operator. New Orleans would be the first U.S. city to implement this type of program.
Thomas, who co-sponsored the ordinance with Eugene Green, told Gambit he withdrew it from yesterday’s meeting to allow NOPD “to make edits” on the measure.
**But opponents of the ordinance said there are no changes that would resolve their concerns over civil rights and privacy concerns. **
“There are no edits or modifications that could make this proposal safe. It needs to be taken off the table entirely, forever,” said Rachel Taber, an organizer with Union Migrante, a group that supports immigrants’ rights.
Green and Thomas have argued the ordinance would help NOPD stop crime more efficiently and aid in other investigations, particularly focused on violence, sexual assault and illegal drugs.
But opponents of the bill have sounded the alarm over potential civil rights violations, pointing out that a real-time surveillance system of this caliber could easily be used by law enforcement or third parties to target and monitor marginalized communities including immigrants and people of color — regardless of criminal activity.
It could also track LGBTQ activity and monitor people seeking reproductive health care.
While the ordinance does specifically prohibit the NOPD from targeting immigrants, women seeking reproductive health care and LGBTQ people, those restrictions would almost certainly be trumped by state law requiring NOPD to comply with agencies like the Louisiana State Police and federal law enforcement — which, among other things, are currently targeting immigrants for kidnappings and detention.
Taber also pointed to the already-robust private surveillance all over the city that NOPD and other law enforcement agencies can access, if needed.
“If a crime occurs, as is, they can subpoena evidence from nearby cameras,” she said. “No one needs 24/7 access to all faces and license plates all the time, everywhere, without cause.”
I don’t think I’d fully understood who was behind this ordinance before. Worrying to see such a surveillance and police happy mayoral candidate right this moment while the feds have decided to go ahead and go after Cantrell, conveniently also while Trump has been targeting Black mayors. Not like LC doesn’t deserve it but the timing is ridiculous.
Nice to see Union Migrante getting platformed and NOLA.com actually reporting this like it needs to be though, small victories.
I agree. I’ve wondered for a long time if Landry had dirt on Cantrell (and a lot of other people in city gov) that he’s just been sitting on since he was AG and using to dangle over her head.
Like she was dirty no question (so is just about every person that has ever been mayor of this city) but I have to wonder why she did things like refuse to push back against Landry establishing Troop Nola right after he became governor. Or why she tried to get the consent decree dropped when a federal judge already ruled for the 2 year period ramp down.
It just doesn’t make a lot of sense that they waited a little over a year until Nagin was out of office but with Cantrell they couldn’t just wait 2.5 more months? And then her deputy mayor resigned just weeks before they indict? Weird as fuck.
