Decode Surveillance NYC
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.