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New Orleans is pioneering live facial recognition surveillance

New Orleans is the first US city with real-time facial recognition: If you're wanted and walk past one of the system's cameras, it could flag you. The twist: it's a private system, and even though the new mayor and police chief are at odds about facial recognition, this non-profit says it's able to establish its own "guard-rails" as it feeds real-time tips to the police, side-stepping the debate about government regulation and privacy.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.

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