ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) sent a letter to city officials in New Orleans, Louisiana, calling on them to cease all efforts to pass a law that would give the New Orleans Police Department warrantless access to 5,000 privately-owned surveillance cameras, 200 of which are equipped with facial-recognition technology. Giving law enforcement access to this technology for them to track citizens’ movements is a gross violation of New Orleanians’ privacy, and a blatant infringement of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
“Cities across the country are beginning to reject the use of new technologies to expand the surveillance state. We urge New Orleans to join them,” said IJ Attorney Jared McClain. “The Supreme Court has been clear that the Fourth Amendment protects people’s privacy in their public movements. The government doesn’t get to spy on us every time we step outside.”
Project NOLA is nonprofit organization that operates “the largest, most cost efficient and successful networked HD crime camera program in America.” In total, the organization has approximately 5,000 that blanket the city of New Orleans in a constant state of surveillance. Project NOLA touts its ability to use its cameras to investigate crimes through “proactive policing,” and send any footage to local law enforcement, which included NOPD up until recently.
After The Washington Post exposed NOPD’s use of Project NOLA’s technology, the department was forced to end its participation with the nonprofit. They stated that the use of the cameras and technology violated local law. But rather than uphold their citizens’ civil liberties, New Orleans’ City Council is now proposing to amend that law so police may again access Project NOLA’s network of surveillance and facial-recognition cameras when investigating a long list of crimes.
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans the right to privacy. Using technology to monitor, catalog, and analyze a person’s movements constitutes a search, which requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant based on probable cause. The proposed amendment would allow NOPD to collect, map, and search massive amounts of surveillance footage without obtaining warrants. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that its unconstitutional for law enforcement to track people’s movements without a warrant, making NOPD’s actions unconstitutional.
As part of its Project on the Fourth Amendment, IJ has fought against various laws that permit government officials to conduct unreasonable searches and seizures, including in Virginia where IJ is currently suing the city of Norfolk for its unconstitutional reliance on automatic license plate readers. IJ has also fought against jurisdictions efforts to use technology to invade Americans’ privacy in states including Florida, Georgia, and Virginia.