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Decode Surveillance NYC

2020 By Amnesty International, Ban the Scan, Citizen Evidence Lab
Image of protesters at the Black Lives Matter Protests in New York City.
The image is in black and white, and has an urban backdrop. Protestors have
megaphones and Black Lives Matter t-shirts. There are orange squares tracing
their faces as if they are being surveilled.
Image adapted by La Loma, based on project “Decode Surveillance NYC” by Amnesty International. Background photograph "Protestors In New York Rally For Black Lives After Kenosha Shooting", 2020 by Spencer Platt / Getty Images News via Getty Images.

Facial recognition technologies are used by the New York Police Department in over 10,000 cases per year. However, there is very little public information about when, where and why. This information is essential when people of colour are disproportionately profiled and misidentified by law enforcement and where there is evidence of discrimi­natory policing, harassment and arrests at Black Lives Matter protests.

To fill the gap, Amnesty International and partners crowdsourced 7,000 volunteers to analyse every intersection in New York City to locate and identify CCTV cameras. This information was then used to develop models of views from the cameras, to create a unique people-driven insight into the depth and breadth of surveillance in urban public spaces.

Decode Surveillance NYC Tutorial, 2021 by Amnesty International.