New Orleans Surveillance Camera Nastygram

City officials in New Orleans are considering a proposal that would allow police access to 5,000 privately owned surveillance cameras across the city. Roughly 200 of these cameras are equipped with facial recognition technology, giving the New Orleans Police Department the power to track residents’ movements in real time.

Granting police such unrestricted access would undermine the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that tracking people’s movements without a warrant is unconstitutional. Yet under the proposed system, New Orleans police would be able to catalog and analyze massive amounts of video data without ever seeking judicial approval.

That’s why the Institute for Justice (IJ) sent a letter demanding New Orleans stop this unconstitutional plan. Allowing warrantless access to thousands of cameras, including facial recognition technology, would trample the fundamental privacy rights of city residents.