New Orleans Outlaws Facial Recognition and Predictive Policing Technologies
The New Orleans City Council passes an ordinance banning facial recognition, predictive policing, and other specific surveillance tools. While less comprehensive than originally proposed, the new law establishes a foundation for future tech regulation.
The New Orleans City Council passes a new law that bans specific surveillance technologies, including facial recognition software and predictive policing systems. This ordinance arrives just a month after a local news investigation reveals that the New Orleans Police Department uses facial recognition despite previous denials from city officials.
Although the final version lacks the comprehensive oversight protocols and approval processes of the original draft, it still places New Orleans among the few American cities to outright prohibit facial recognition. The ban targets four specific technologies: facial recognition, characteristic recognition and tracking software, predictive policing, and cell-site simulators.
The law creates a new "Surveillance Technology and Data Protection" chapter in the City Code, establishing a formal definition for surveillance technology for the first time. Local advocacy group Eye on Surveillance views this as a significant victory and a crucial starting point, while promising to continue fighting for the stronger oversight measures that were removed from the final text.