From aa998d53a4480481bd940aba90f8ab63dacfd052 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ayyub Ibrahim Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2024 22:17:51 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] edit: concatenated public comment jsons into one --- .../backend/src/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc | 4 +- .../src/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc | 6 +- .../Public Comments.json | 1479 +++++++++++++++++ ...y Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json | 0 ...y Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json | 0 ...egular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json | 0 ...egular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json | 0 ...ble Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json | 0 .../getanswer/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc | 4 +- .../getanswer/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc | 6 +- 10 files changed, 1489 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) create mode 100644 packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Public Comments.json rename packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/{ => archive}/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json (100%) rename packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/{ => archive}/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json (100%) rename packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/{ => archive}/Regular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json (100%) rename packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/{ => archive}/Regular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json (100%) rename packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/{ => archive}/Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json (100%) diff --git a/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc b/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc index 1f0e7f20..63926234 100644 --- a/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc +++ b/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ outs: -- md5: a3801ca1eb86b9981418e5594c9ff419.dir - size: 137244851 +- md5: 36fba85a3903236524e814d1f78b8aed.dir + size: 137244321 nfiles: 2 hash: md5 path: faiss_index_general diff --git a/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc b/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc index 2aa33d36..a7066307 100644 --- a/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc +++ b/packages/backend/src/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ outs: -- md5: 48350758567819a301f732710b7d73cf.dir - size: 137244851 +- md5: 92e16223ddd6a98d03b4aa93256ff5f0.dir + size: 137244321 nfiles: 2 hash: md5 - path: faiss_index_in_depth + path: faiss_index_in_Depth diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Public Comments.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Public Comments.json new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8e1ac0d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Public Comments.json @@ -0,0 +1,1479 @@ +{ + "messages": [ + { + "page_content": "The importance of voting to ban these technologies within our city is insurmountable. These products not only disproportionately effect people of color, but there is no evidence that they make any neighborhood safer. Let us join in the ranks of many cities who have decided to stand with their citizens and say no more to Surveillance tech.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance may seem like a tantalizing alternative to physical policing in a time of pandemic and anti-police sentiment, but make no mistake: investments in surveillance technology are neither smart nor sustainable. Surveillance technologies like facial recognition, stingrays, ALPRs, and characteristic tracking are expensive investments in strategies not proven to benefit public safety. These technologies are also tied with human rights abuses worldwide. Given the historical landscape of racism in surveillance and social science research, we must NOT allow our city to be a testing ground for these technologies. We must invest in smart, sustainable, PROVEN strategies to improve health and safety. Yes on 33021, but only with a full ban on the four technologies listed.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Pass the legislation AS IS. Do NOT allow mass surveillance in New Orleans, which will only result in the incarceration of brown and black people.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no evidence that surveillance technology effectively keeps our city safe. Facial recognition technology has been found to be biased against Black people and women. There should be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. YES on Ordinance 33021, with a FULL facial recognition ban.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please support ordinance 33021 as introduced. We don't need New Orleans to be a testing ground for invasive and racially biased surveillance, as it already has been during a secret predictive policing contract with tech giant Palantir. As a movement sweeps across the country advocating for Black lives and urging us to shift our priorities away from tools and policies that further criminalize our neighbors, it is vital that we respond to this call here in New Orleans and vote YES on Ordinance 33021 as introduced. This ordinance is not taking any tools away as proponents of surveillance might say. It is pumping the brakes and ensuring that we understand the full scope and history of the ways these technologies have been used to seriously harm those already impacted by mass incarceration and the war on working people. It is laying the ground work for a more open and transparent process, and protects citizens from further criminalization and incarceration. This policy brings us one step closer to ensure equity for all citizens. We know there is no 'quick fix' for crime, but we also know that more policing and surveillance does not decrease crime, only increases incarceration. We need a crime prevention policy that addresses the root causes: education, affordable housing, access to good jobs. Surveillance might seem like a quick fix for crime but in fact is a harmful encroachment of the police into the lives of everyday people. Please support this ordinance as introduced, including a ban on new ALPRs, new characteristic tracking, facial recognition, and stingrays. These tools are harmful and invasive. Thank you.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We are not a wealthy community, and so we need to spend our money wisely. Facial recognition technology is flawed with a known bias against Black people, and its use leads to more incarceration, when we should be working to reduce the number of people in jail. Yes on Ordinance 33021", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We are not a wealthy community, and so we need to spend our money wisely. Facial recognition technology is flawed with a known bias against Black people, and its use leads to more incarceration, when we should be working to reduce the number of people in jail. Yes on Ordinance 33021.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please support the ordinance as introduced! We need to invest in our communities and not surveillance.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no evidence showing surveillance of communities by government provides any protection from crime or reduction in crime rates. There should no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. Say yes to ordinance 33021.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote YES to ban full facial recognition with no exceptions", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial Recognition technology has been proven to have racial bias. We cannot have that. There must be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition tech ban. It must be banned, full stop. It infringes upon people's rights and does not make the citizens of New Orleans any safer. Not only is it a waste of money that could be better used for education, enrichment, job growth, healthcare or other ways to benefit our community, but it causes more harm.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to voice my support for ordinance 33021, which establishes a full ban on facial recognition technology in our city. This technology is not proven to be beneficial for the safety of our citizens. It is not effective at reducing crime. Instead, its primary function is to make members of our community feel uneasy, and to increase an already intrusive and pervasive sense of constant surveillance in our city and in our wider world. The technology is especially troubling due to questions arising about the possibility of bias towards people of color being inherent in the technology. Please pass ordinance 33021 to limit the use of intrusive technologies in our community and to clearly state that New Orleans will not be a testing ground for unproven and disquieting new technologies.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition software has been demonstrated to show bias in recognition when it comes to race and gender. I would be proud to see the city of New Orleans vote Yes on Ordiance 33021", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge you to support Ordinance 33021 to BAN FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY- as is! There is no evidence that surveillance technology is effective at keeping our city safe. On the contrary, surveillance technology only increases incarceration. Incarceration does NOT keep our communities safe. We can clearly see this fact with the COVID crisis, but it is true everyday that we invest our money in incarceration and reactive measures rather than investing our money in community health, education, and jobs. Money is tight right now- we need to spend it where it will really make a difference. Real community safety means helathcare, housing and living wages... not criminalization. Divest city resources from surveillance and invest in our communities. There have been hundreds of calls to urge support for the ordinance- the city is demanding this now and always. We urge you to do the right thing to move our city in the right direction.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Greetings councilmembers, thank you for hearing public comments today. Why are we spending millions of dollars a year on surveillance rather than the things that truly make our community safer? I went on a tour of the real time crime center last year and they told us that there is no evidence that surveillance actually makes our city safer, it just increases arrest rates, contributing to mass incarceration. Let's pay for nurses, social workers and community organizers in every neighborhood instead of funding the ever growing surveillance state. I urge you today to pass this ordinance AS INTRODUCED. There has been talk about amending key provisions such as the ban on facial recognition technology. Please do not make these changes! Facial recognition has been found to be biased against Black people and women. Please respect the coalition that has come together representing many constituencies who are harmed by surveillance and vote for ordinance 33021 without any changes.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I've been a software engineer for the last decade, and studied machine learning techniques that are currently used by major facial recognition software. I can tell you that the statistical biases that come with how neural networks are programmed means that this technology will never be accurate enough to do what it claims it can do. Moreover, I think it's morally reprehensible that the government would have the ability of what would be allowed if you don't pass this ordinance. You put our immigrant & BIPOC population at risk of state violence or exposure to COVID in jails by potentially misidentifying innocent bystandards of an algorithm made by people that don't live in New Orleans or care to see it thrive. Please affirm the ordinance.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We believe this is a civil rights and racial justice issue. Surveillance technology is racially bias and is used to further criminalize communities of color. Moreover, tools such as facial recognition have no record of reducing or preventing crime. We urge you to support Ordinance 33021. Reducing surveillance and incarceration, both of which disproportionately target poor people and people of color,will help us create the beautiful and sustainable that we all want see.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no evidence that facial recognition technology will make our city safer. Divest city resources from surveillance and invest in our communities. We need healthcare, affordable housing, and living wages, not further criminalization. Yes on ordinance 33021, a full ban on facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRS and new characteristic tracking technology.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Against", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am in support", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The people do not want their rights violated with facial recognition technology.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Pass the ordinance for our community safety", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition technology has been found to have a bias against Black people, specifically Black women. There should be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. Yes on Ordinance 33021! There is no evidence that surveillance technology effectively keeps our city safe, only that it increases incarceration. New Orleans should not be a testing ground for unproven surveillance technologies. The city MUST ban all facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRs, and new characteristic tech. Real community safety = healthcare, housing, living wages, not criminalization and incarceration. Divest City resources from surveillance and invest in our communities.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Vote yes on 33,021 with a full facial recognition ban, no exceptions! Surveillance, criminalization and incarceration do not make us safe. Actually investing in our community- with healthcare, housing, living wages, etc.- is what we need instead! Facial recognition is proven to be baised against black and brown people with a frightening rate of error. Now imagine police arriving to arrest an innocent civilian who was misidentified by inherently faulty facial recognition software. Of course that innocent person will protest, then the police will escalate and brutalize them, and we all know how this story ends... Vote yes on Ordinance 33,021!", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no evidence that surveillance technology effectively keeps our city safe. New Orleans should not be a testing ground for unproven surveillance technology. The city must ban all facial recognition, cell site simulators, new albrs, and new characteristic tracking tech. Surveillance tech is racist. Vote yes on ordinance 33021", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Yes on ordinance 33021 with a full ban on facial recognition, cell site simulators, new alprs & new characteristic tracking tech", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition technology has been found to have a bias against Black people, specifically Black women. There should be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. There is no evidence that surveillance technology effectively keeps our city safe, only that it increases incarceration. New Orleans should not be a testing ground for unproven surveillance technologies. The city MUST ban all facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRs, and new characteristic tech. Real community safety = health care, housing, living wages....not criminalization and incarceration. Divest City resources from surveillance and invest in our communities. Vote Yes on Ordinance 33021.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support ordinance 33,021 banning facial recognition technology in New Orleans. Surveillance technology, particularly facial recognition, represents government overreach that has not been shown to keep communities safer. Instead, in our current racist criminal justice system, it is more likely to be used as a tool of oppression to further criminalize Black people in our communities. We do not need more policing of this kind, those funds would be better spent SUPPORTING our communities in education, youth programming, job training, or for our criminally underfunded public defender's office.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote \"yes\" on ordinance 33,021! There is no evidence to support that surveillance reduces crime. It disproportionately affects black and brown communities. The current program has very little oversight and accountability. It is a huge expense that could reallocated to health programs, education, and economic opportunities to reduce crime. Thank you for your consideration, Annie", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please pass this ordinance AS IS.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge my representatives to keep this ordinance as is. I worry about the effects of the intention to narrow the definition of surveillance in this ordinance because it will leave huge loopholes for exploitation. I am concerned that-- as has happened numerous times throughout New Orleans history-- that 'diluting' this ordinance can jeopardize underrepresented populations in this city. Please vote in favor of this ordinance WITH the ban of Automatic License Plate Readers and Cell Site Stimulators, as well as a definition of surveillance that can protect the health and well-being of ALL of our residents (rather than only the wealthy, property owners.)", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I'm writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to pass ordinance 33021 AS WRITTEN. Please don't let this get watered down to the point of irrelevance. You have an opportunity to lead this city into the future and I urge you to do the right thing.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no credible evidence anywhere that surveillance reduces crime. Put your efforts into housing, mental & physical healthcare & a living wage for New Orleanians. There\u0092s an abundance of evidence supporting that these steps make safer communities.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Pass 33021 AS INRRODUCED.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to strongly urge the Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee to pass Ordinance 33021 as introduced. As a law student, I am well aware that cell site simulators violate basic constitutional rights and allow law enforcement officers to spy on law-abiding citizens. I also know that government surveillance stifles free political speech, even when that is not the intention of the surveillance in question. This bill, as originally introduced, protects the liberty of New Orleanians. Law enforcement found ways to fight crime before the invention of cell phones, and I insist that they find ways to gather intelligence that don't involve gaining access to everything on my phone. Thank you.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "i, as someone who lived in new orleans, primarily in the seventh ward, for years, return regularly for visits, and intend to one day again live there full-time, want to voice an ardent demand that the council pass ordinance 33021 AS INTRODUCED. to avoid the possibility of being euphemistic, i am particularly, pointedly asking that neither NOPD nor the department of homeland security be allowed to sway the council toward loopholes, which, as anyone with any bureaucratic experience knows, are easily exploitable. new orleans has plenty of problems, as all american cities do; it also happens to be a jewel, not least of all for the fact that is one of the blackest cities in our countries. for that reason, given how intrinsically racist surveillance technology is, and how racist its applications tend to be (in both intentional and unavoidable ways, given the nature of the technology itself) it is crucial, in the interest of its citizens and legacies, that the city protect itself. i implore the city council members to remember that they work for and represent the people - not any organization, even ones so intimidating as those present today. i'm writing from new york city, where i've been involved in actions of all kinds in defense of black life, including lobbying our city council towards defunding the police. even as we live through these weeks where decades happen, it remains clear these struggles toward actual equanimity and equality will be long, and epic, and potentially quite violent, which is part of why labor for a solid infrastructure supporting black life is so crucial. any lenience on state surveillance is just the opposite. please, be sure to pass this ordinance as introduced. now is no time for these sorts of compromises. thank you for your work!", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please pass Ordinance 33021 as originally introduced (no changes to/removals from the ordinance).", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition software presents too many pitfalls and potential security flaws to be a viable resource. Given all the current situations we face, we should instead be looking to support all communities with meaningful efforts and programs. Ban facial recognition technology in New Orleans.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "It is vital that Ordinance 33021 is passed as it has been introduced to protect the privacy of all New Orleanians. We want a ban on facial recognition tactics and Automatic License Plate Readers that endanger and target communities of color. The current iteration of the ordinance also ensures that the Council is able to review security technologies before they are implemented, a process that can create more transparency in this sector.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Community safety = healthcare, housing, and living wages, not criminalization and incarceration. Divest city resources from surveillance, invest in our communities. Yes on ordinance 33021, with a full ban on facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRs, and new characteristic tracking tech.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please pass Ordinance 33021 as it is introduced. We, New Orleanians, need to ensure that systems that are implemented for public safety actually serve that goal - surveillance and face recognition do not. Any watering down of the original ordinance is not good enough!", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please support this ordinance, as introduced. I'm deeply opposed to investing tax payer dollars into technologies that disproportionately\u00a0impact and fail to protect black people and other people of color. So I ask you to please not water this ordinance down or create loopholes for the NOPD or Homeland Security. Thank you.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition technology has been found to disproportionately harm and criminalize black and brown communities. We must divest city funding from surveillance and invest in our communities. Vote YES on Ord 33021 with a full ban on Facial Recognition, Cell Site simulators, New Alprs, and new characteristic tracking tech.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Brian Jarreau I am a resident of the Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans- 70117 zip. As you know the ordinance gives the City Council the ability to review all future surveillance technologies adopted by the city as well as putting an outright ban on FACIAL RECOGNITION technology- which is proven to be highly susceptible to error and misidentification, particularly in communities of color and on marginalized citizens. I think we can all agree that giving the City Council, who has the most direct line of communication with the citizens they represent, the ability to closely regulate technology employed against our communities is a wise and prudent choice, which why I am in full support of ORD 33021. I STRONGLY urge you to vote in favor of this bill before it moves to the full city council for a vote on July 16th- where you should again support it. Additionally the watered down language you're seeking is including removing the ban on ALPR's is unacceptable. Pass the Ordinance as it's written. STOP endlessly disappointing your citizens for profit.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote yes on Ordinance 33012. Facial recognition has been found to be biased against Black people and women. It would therefore be dangerous to deploy technology that could potentially misidentify 80% of our city's population. Community safety is born from more robust health care, affordable housing, and access to jobs that pay living wages, not increased surveillance, criminalization, and incarceration. Let's not make New Orleans a testing ground for unproven surveillance technologies. Please vote to fully ban facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRS, and new characteristic tracking tech.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "There is no evidence that surveillance technology effectively keeps our city safe. New Orleans should not be a testing ground for unproven technologies. The city must ban all facial recognition cell site simulators, new ALPRS and new characteristic tracking technology. Yes on ordinance 33021", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Julia Fitzgerald and I am a New Orleans resident living in the Touro neighborhood. I must express my strong support for Ordinance 33021 AS INTRODUCED, including the ban on new ALPRs. Please vote in favor of this legislation because it is the only way to protect privacy in our city. The legislation ensures that any security technologies that disproportionately target communities of color and hyper-exploited groups will not be implemented in New Orleans. Thank you for registering my support.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please pass ordinance 33021 as introduced!!!", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am writing in support of the ordinance with a full facial recognition ban. The dangerous and discriminatory nature of facial recognition technology does not change simply based on the activity a person is undertaking. Please do not create exceptions to this ban.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Good morning. In regards to Ordinance 33021, I am writing to support this measure. Facial recognition is being widely criticized and debunked as an acureacte measure that increases public safety. The inherent biases in AI and therefore facial recognition have been", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The Lakeview Crime Prevention District Board of Commissioners has reviewed the proposed ordinance and have major concerns regarding the author's intent to cripple the City's License Plate Reader Program. While we have no issue with responsible oversight, we believe that license plate readers can be a valuable tool in the fight against auto burglaries and auto thefts. I am respectfully requesting that you defer the proposed ordinance 30 days to give everyone more time to review the language and consider the negative impacts that it may have on fighting crime. Thank you", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Now is the time to ban facial recognition surveillance technology within New Orleans. As renewed Black Lives Matter protests nationwide demonstrate, citizens are asserting our right to live without police violence. Surveillance technology, like all policing, maintains white supremacy and disproportionately harms people of color. Banning facial recognition technology in New Orleans is one concrete step toward stanching the overwhelming tide of state violence in Louisiana.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I'm in strong support of this ordinance. It would provide critical protections against the expansion of damaging and racist surveillance and criminal punishment in our city.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition technology has been found to have a bias against Black people, specifically Black women, and that is not okay. There should be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. Yes on Ordinance 33021! Also, real community safety is caused by improving healthcare, housing, living wages....not criminalization and incarceration. Divest City resources from surveillance and invest in our communities. Especially as there is no evidence that surveillance technology keeps our city safe, only that it increases incarceration. Facial recognition technology must be banned.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please continue the license plate camera program, our police have limited resources as it is and this is a great help for them.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please ban facial recognition technology in New Orleans; the potential for mistakes, false positives, and misuse far outweigh any positives.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a taxpaying resident of Lakeview, I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Request to defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer Ordinance Cal. No. 33,021 for 30 days. The general public and the city council needs additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance could have on neighborhood crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer action on this ordinance to allow time to investigate how this ordinance will impact law enforcement in identifying sources of criminal activity.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Gwen Dilworth, and I am a resident of New Orleans and live in District B. I am writing to express my support for Ordinance 33021. Evidence shows that surveillance technology does not make our city safer, but rather results in higher incarcerations rates. I do not believe that incarceration makes our city, communities, or families safer. Rather, facial recognition technology has been found to operate with a bias against Black individuals. No technology that contributes to higher incarceration rates or discrimination should be a part of our city's \"public safety\" measures. I express my support for ordinance 33021 as is, without amendments or the removal of a facial recognition ban. We must move forward into a future of justice and true safety for all of our citizens.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Committee Members, On behalf of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association (LCIA), we would request that discussion and voting on Ordinance Cal. No. 33,021 be deferred until a later date as the general public has not had enough time to review and assess the implications of the actions outlined in the Ordinance. This is especially true considering that many community members may not be aware of the Ordinance due to recent holiday weekend. We feel that with the deferral, additional research can be completed to assist in a full understanding of the Ordinance. Trey Babin President of Lakeview Civic Association (LCIA)", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requesting that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer this meeting 30 days to give the public and general council more time to consider the negative impact his ordnance will have on the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District\u0092s ability to fight crime in New Orleans.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I respectfully request that you defer this ordinance 30 days to allow the public to better assess its impact.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I believe these cameras help protect us against crime and doing away with them will have a severe negative impact on our neighborhood. Please delay this vote to allow more time for discussing other options.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requesting the committee defer the ordinance for 30 days in order to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts this ordinance will have on the NOPD and neighborhood crime prevention districts abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Continue the license plate reader program", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The City of New Orleans moved to install a network of surveillance cameras without public oversight continuing a long racist legacy of 'testing' technologies on poor black and brown communities. The least the City Council can do to make amends is pass Ordinance 33021 AS INTRODUCED.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the impact(s) that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requesting that Council postpone voting on this ordinance for 30 days, to give both the public and the Council adequate time to consider the full impact of the ordinance on NOPD and crime prevention.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "What is the city doing to make sure developers are building with durability of structures in mind, sewerage and drainage in mind, affordability in mind, and use of cleaner energy in mind? It's been my thought that the development that quickly and thoughtlessly went up in Mid City a few years ago plays into the flooding that plagues my neighborhood. Does the city have a plan to be more green and sustainable that is available to the public? Thank you.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition has been found to be biased against black people and women. There should be no exceptions or amendments to a facial recognition ban. Yes on ordinance 33021, with a full facial recognition ban.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to review", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime. We were not given advance notice that this would be considered today. Further, considering the uptick in car burglaries in the Lakeview area, this ordinance doe not appear to do anything to help residents, but to instead enable criminals.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Ordinance 33021 introduces vital safeguards to protect the safety and privacy of New Orleans residents. Technologies such as Facial Recognition and Characteristic Tracking have been proven to produce racist and unreliable results. This invasive and oppressive technology has no place in our city. City Council should listen to the Will of the People and support Ordinance 33021 AS INTRODUCED.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "It is my understanding that this ordinance as written does not support a License Plate Reader Program. Please defer action on this ordinance for 30 days to allow for full and transparent consideration of how this program might benefit our city's efforts to control crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Do not do anything to hinder our safety. Enough.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I do NOT support any measure that would adversely affect the license plate readers in my neighborhood. In order for this to be a city safe enough to live and park our cars, we MUST maintain those measures which allow law enforcement to fight crime!", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please delay the vote to dismantle the license plate reader program by 30 days so as to study its impact on NOPD\u0092s ability to police", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Urgent: Ordinance Cal. No. 33,021 authored by Cmbr. Jason Williams I am requestIng that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please keep the scanners in effect", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please keep the scanners in effect", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I disagree with removing the LICENSE PLATE READER PROGRAM. We have too many car break-ins in Lakeview and his helps us find some of the ones doing the break ins. Please do not remove.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please delay the vote on this for 30 days to study the impact on NOPD\u0092s ability to police.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Urgent: Ordinance Cal. No. 33,021 authored by Cmbr. Jason Williams I am requestIng that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am for readers", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I do not support this ordinance and would prefer the City Council to delay approval until we can understand the long term effects.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please give us a chance to look at the pros and cons of this ordinance", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members time to consider the negative impacts this will have on the community and the ability to fight the serious crime issue in our area", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I respectfully request that the council delay the vote on this ordinance for a reasonable time so that the impact on the NOPD's ability to fight crime can be assessed. I support privacy rights in principle, but crime is also an infringement of privacy for citizens, and a reasonable compromise needs to be reached between safety and privacy.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I ask that the members of the Smart & Sustainable Cities Committee fully support Ordinance 33,021 as introduced including the ban on new ALPRs. Surveillance has a long and deeply troubling history rooted in slavery and anti-blackness. Although we haven't seen any evidence that these types of public safety measures actually reduce crime, we have seen several instances across the country and most importantly, in our own city where black, brown and other marginalized citizens have been targeted and criminalized with current surveillance tools. Oversight and accountability for these tools are necessary for our city to sustain itself during both the current economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. New Orleans needs and deserves more inclusive community driven processes that invest resources directly into our communities, not additional surveillance tech that will only further perpetuate racial biases and provide an influx to our carceral system.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requestIng that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I believe this vote should be delayed for 30 days to allow a study as to its impact on NOPD\u0092s ability to police? It\u0092s my understanding that this local ordinance will dismantle our license plate reader program, which would make it a lot harder for police to track criminals' vehicles. Our community needs ways to help stop crime, not make it harder.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer a vote on this so that the public and the council has time to fully understand the ordinance. We need to consider all options to make our neighborhoods safer and combat the continued crime. The public has a right to have a voice on these matters", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please delay this ordinance. The public and Council needs more time to review the impacts of this ordinance.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requesting that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requestIng that the committee defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer the ordinance 30 days to give the general public and council members additional time to consider the negative impacts that this ordinance will have on both the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention Districts abilities to fight crime", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please defer ordinance for 30 days so public and council additional time to consider impact on NOPD and our NCPD ability to fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please delay the vote by 30 days to give the ample time to review the impacts of this proposal. This needs to be looked at further to see how this will affect auto thefts and auto burglaries in NOLA. Thank You.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I disagree with the entire premise of this ordinance and feel as though we are constantly making police officers\u0092 jobs more difficult and at the same time expecting more of them.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a citizen of New Orleans, I would like to show my full support for Ordinance 33,021 AS INTRODUCED. Any amendments or changes will leave loopholes for abuse of surveillance technology. Surveillance technology on a mass scale is too new and too wrought of mistakes for use by NOPD, DHS, or any other law enforement agency. There are numerous studies confirming the racial biases that this technology already has, we CANNOT have this tech continue to negatively affect communities of color. With mass surveillance, everyone is treated as a suspect or criminal with the constant watchful eye in the sky. Our privacy is no longer sacred and perpetually violated with technology like facial recognition used with public and/or police cameras. Ordinance 33,021 protects the everyday citizens of New Orleans from technology that can be and has been used to punish wrongfully identified people, and protects us from the constant privacy violation of identifying every public move we make. Please approve this Ordinance AS INTRODUCED. Thank you for your time.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requestIng that the committee defer the ordinance for 30 days to give the public and council members more time to consider how this ordinance will negatively impact the NOPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to adequately fight crime.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Is there a way to defer this ordinance 30 days to give the public the opportunity to review the potential negative impacts? I live directly on Pontchartrain Blvd, a main thoroughfare out of Lakeview, and between the excessive speeding, noise from altered cars and accidents occurring regularly, in addition to the multitude of car break ins surrounding me, I feel additional time should be warranted for the potential impact this loss would mean to the NOPD and the Lakeview Crime Prevention District's ability to fight these crimes in a timely manner.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote YES on 33021. The citizens of this city oppose facial recognition technology. And there should be no acceptions or amendments to facial recognition policy. There is no proof that surveillance technology works. The people of New Orleans refuse to be a testing ground for such surveillance. It is dangerous, biased, and racist. Instead of investing in surveillance this city must invest in housing and living wages. YES on 33021 with a full band on facial recognition, cell site simulators, new ALPRS, & new characteristic tracking tech. We are not your guinea pigs to try this tech out on.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support Ordinance Cal No. 33,021.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I request that the committee defer this proposed ordinance for 30 days to provide the general public and council members additional time to consider the impacts that this proposed ordinance will have on the NOPD's and Neighborhood Crime Prevention District's abilities to fight crime in our City. Careful and deliberate consideration of the ordinance and its impacts is particularly important in this case because some sections of the proposed ordinance would have immediate impacts on existing technologies available to the NOPD to detect and deter criminal activity in our City.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Against this", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please do not pass the ordinance until all aspects have been researched. Specifically, the license plate reading program.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please consider delaying vote on the vehicle camera program to permit more evaluation. Crime is a huge problem here and this at least provides some method of tracking criminals and their movements via auto.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please delay a vote in this issue. I believe the license plate tracking g cameras are valuable.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "YES to 33021 Ban all facial recognition and surveillance technology.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "YES to 33021 Ban all facial recognition and surveillance technology.", + "title": "Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7/8/2022", + "publish_date": "7/8/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Instead of panicking and making decisions that are not based in local facts or international research about what makes communities safe, the City should take this moment to strengthen civil liberties for its residents. Specific steps would include adding back the enforcement clause from the Ordinance 33,021 so that the people can hold the New Orleans Police Department when they break the law. The City should halt any expansion of technologies that risk our personal identities until a study is conducted, with oversight from the community, on the efficacy of the City's current resources is completed. The City should then use those results to inform a comprehensive strengthening of current ordinance. Most importantly, money divested from the ineffective use of surveillance and away from big business, should be distributed to local grassroots organizations. You can check your inboxes for the names of a few. Vote no on 33639.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "For decades, police departments have used military and espionage technology to surveil and harass marginalized communities in the name of stopping or curtailing crime. It never works. It does nothing to ameliorate the social conditions that inevitably lead to crime. If anything, it contributes to existing inequities. New Orleans' ban on facial recognition software had placed this city at the forefront of evolving better ways to deal with criminal justice. Now, after the pandemic has deepened the rifts between the haves and the have-nots in this city, crime is inevitably on the rise. We cannot backslide by falling into outmoded ways of dealing with crime, ways of dealing with the problem that never worked in the first place. I urge you to uphold the ban on facial recognition software and to instead direct the city's resources toward tacking these problems at the root by investing in infrastructure and our communities.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I strongly urge the Council to reject all attempts to increase surveillance and the use of facial recognition technology. Most people don't realize that the camera footage is not monitored in real time, so its effectiveness in *preventing* crime is negligible, and largely used to bolster prosecutions and plea deals.. All forms of \"technology\" used by law enforcement are ineffective, racist, and are merely an excuse to put more money in our over-funded public safety budget. Concentrate on funding the community, reducing poverty, and addressing our housing crisis if you want crime to go down.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a software developer, I can't stress enough how misguided the use of facial recognition as a tool of policing is, especially considering racial bias, false positives, and the incongruous rate of Black people targeted with this technology. Moreover, every City employee becomes a target of these tools for workplace disputes, as seen with crime camera footage used to fire multiple City employees. This ain't about stopping violent crime, considering the volume of non-violent arrests using crime camera footage. Policing and surveillance won't prevent crime, no matter how sophisticated the technology is. Please vote no", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Re: OPPOSE Proposed Ordinance on Civilian Surveillance, Amendments to 147-2 of City Ordinances\n\nImplementing the proposed ordinance, giving broad discretion to \u0093any city official\u0094 to use surveillance technology to \u0093locate a named suspect\u0094 is poorly drafted, poorly thought out legislation that is inviting a lawsuit on a number of grounds, starting with the 4th Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. \n\nLawsuits that will further tax city resources to defend. I can\u0092t believe that the current city attorney would allow such poorly drafted legislation to stand, knowing that this is an indefensible government overreach without any justification that flies in the face of established legal precedence. \n\nThis standard does not require probable cause or sign off from a judge. It does not even require a law enforcement officer to execute it, but any city employee. This ordinance is immediately ripe for abuse. There is no oversight mechanism on who, how, when, and where this technology can be used and absolutely no limits on the type of technology to be used. Additionally, there is no restriction on what can be done with the information once it is obtained. \n\nThe people of New Orleans asked to be safer. They have asked for the police to do their job without harming the individuals of this city, a task they have regularly failed at, as they do not prevent, stop, or solve most crimes in this city. And the city\u0092s response is to give them more money and more tools to surveil us? We did not ask to live in a surveillance state, we asked to be safe. This does nothing to make us safer and in fact is a wild intrusion on our rights to be free. \n\nImmediately the city is going to invite lawsuits on this matter AND weaken their ability to prosecute cases by having cases thrown out for violations of 4th amendment rights. \n\nThere is no definition of \u0093named\u0094, there\u0092s not even a definition of \u0093suspect\u0094 and you want us to give every employee of this city the ability to access private information about its citizens without any formal oversight? Absolutely not. I would oppose this ordinance under the best of circumstances and you have not provided a single good circumstance. \n\nI have serious questions about data related to these intrusive violations of our right to privacy and how it will be stored, who will have access to this information, what will be done to keep the information private, and what should happen should this data be used against someone in a manner not foreseen, which is incredibly likely given the broad applicability of this ordinance. \n\nAdditionally, in a city that already over-policies it\u0092s communities of color, facial recognition data will most assuredly only further exacerbate this issue and has been shown to be racist. \n\nIt would behoove the city council to remember that their fiduciary obligation is to all citizens of this city, not just the vocal minority that unjustifiably believe they are in danger of violent crime, when even the recent uptick in that area is poorly framed and illusory. You have a duty to those that may be accused of a crime as well and to protect their best interests (which considering relatives of council members are under FBI investigation should not be a stretch of the imagination\u0085relatives who work for the police department we want to expand rights to). That means that this proposed ordinance, which only further serves to disenfranchise people who are already constantly disenfranchised, should be immediately thrown out.\n\nI urge the city council to oppose passing this ordinance. And if you choose to implement this, I look forward to watching the ACLU or other organization absolutely shred you apart for this. \n\n", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "In December 2020, City Council passed Ordinance 33021 which banned the use of facial recognition software. New Orleans was the one of the first major cities in the south to do this with local organizing efforts. Only 14 months after passing this ordinance, Mayor Cantrell and Chief of Police Shaun Ferguson are trying to reverse this ordinance. \n\nSafety is not facial recognition software. Safety is not more surveillance. The money that would be spent on this technology should be used to actually address problems that lead to residents feeling unsafe, such as: more affordable housing, job security, better public transportation, and community programs. \n\nAs your constituent, I urge you to vote NO on Ord. 33639. Thank you.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Councilmembers, the harm that constant surveillance and monitoring does to the black community cannot be overstated. Rather than reducing discrimination and targeted oppression, use of these technologies put all of us under a suspicious Orwellian eye. The residents of New Orleans deserve safety in the form of resources, opportunities, and social safety nets, not this pro-carceral and punitive reaction to crime. Crime, I may add, that is often borne from our communities long standing lack of said resources. Rather than address the real issue, the expansion of a surveillance state only focuses on the end result of decades of abuse and neglect our people have endured. Reversing the decision to ban facial recognition and other surveillance tools only speaks to the wishy-washy nature of politicians that so many people find detestable. Our city should be on the forefront of protecting civil liberties in the South. Do not drag us back towards regressive notions of control when you could instead focus on building our city up!", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "In 2020, New Orleans made history by becoming one of the first cities in the South to ban facial recognition technology and other harmful surveillance tools, as well as implement common sense data protections for the 21st century.\nAnd now, exploiting the real public safety fears of New Orleanians, Mayor Cantrell and Chief of Police Shaun Ferguson are working to undermine this victory. \n\nWhere is the urgency around hospitality workers that have been decimated by Covid? Where are the resolutions to demand better from hotels and restaurants? To demand a living wage where parents don't have to work 2/3 jobs just to pay every increasing prices and rent, where is the demand for quality and free healthcare for the people that make New Orleans the destination it's known for? \n\nWhat I see is a naked attempt to OVERPOLICE our communities. Real crime has been on the decline for decades now, it is know that only 2% or crime is ever \"brought to justice\" despite having the most bloated and obscene budgets while working people suffer.\nWhat CAL. NO. 33,639 does is ignore the real ROOT OF THE PROBLEM and instead deals with it's symptoms. Are we serious about living in a safe new orleans? What about funding for housing, health care, job trainings, forcing companies to do better, and etc. \n\nI am highly disappointed already by my councilman and this guy just got in office. You are serving the interests of people outside of your constituency.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We as a community should be much more concerned with identifying and ameliorating the root causes of harmful behavior than criminalization and surveillance of our people. We need to work on building communities of trust together. You, as our elected officals, are endangering that trust by backtracking on hard won resistance against criminalization and surveillance culture. Food, gas, and housing prices are at an all time high. Workers' rights in this city are atrocious. Public transport needs so much more investment. Creating and maintaining jobs that pay a living wage is essential. If you actually focus on service to the people in these ways, they will not need to engage in violent and harmful behaviors. Please refocus with intention. We all know that criminalization and surveillance hurt our Black community members the most. We will not accept this status quo.\n\nWe all want to feel safe in our city, but Ord. 33639 is a step in the wrong direction. I write to you to say in the strongest possible terms that surveillance does not equal safety. In fact, given the racist history of surveillance and the current racial biases built into surveillance technologies, the city\u0092s use of surveillance technologies to monitor and control its residents actually decreases safety for Black and brown New Orleanians and erodes public trust in a government meant to protect us all. The City Council made the right move in December 2020 with the passage of Ord 33021. Please say NO to Ord. 33639.\n\nBefore giving NOPD free reign to use New Orleans as a testing ground for wasteful and racist technology, we need comprehensive civil liberty protections in place and transparent reporting on the use of technology. The money spent purchasing and acquiring new surveillance technologies could be used instead to address the root problems of crime: funding affordable housing, job training programs, revamping the RTA, and freedom from criminalization.\n\nAs your constituent, I urge you to vote NO on Ord. 33639.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Stop spying on us, sickos. Find another way to get off and give us our money back.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am a neighbor of the Fairgrounds and a Council appointee to the Fairgrounds Citizens Advisory Committee. I urge Council to defer approval of this zoning change until the Fairgrounds and Churchill Downs have demonstrated full compliance with the existing conditional use zoning provisos that they been bound by since 2005, when Council approved slot machines on site. I am a homeowner in Faubourg St. John and have lived across the street from the Fairgrounds for six years. I am very familiar with the 21 existing zoning provisos that Churchill Downs is required to comply with and, unfortunately, have also been aware of their lack of compliance with many of those provisos during the time I've lived here. Of particular concern is the lack of compliance with the requirement to provide 24/7 security patrol in the neighborhoods adjacent to their property. Again, I believe Council should defer approval of this requested zoning change to expand gambling operations until Churchill Downs can demonstrate to the Council and neighbors that they are in full compliance with the existing proviso requirements. Thank you for your consideration, Jeanie Donovan", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am in full support of this ordinance. However, I assume this would allow for interim appointments prior to Council approval. If that is the case, there needs to be a limit on the time an interim appointee can serve, lest we end up with a bunch of interim appointees that will never meet Council muster.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a neighbor of the Fair Grounds for more than 15 years, I oppose this zoning change because the Fair Grounds has continually violated existing zoning provisos that have been in place since 2005. I am the chairman of the Fair Grounds Citizens Advisory Committee, but my comments are personal, as a private individual who has lived across the street from the Fair Grounds and witnessed firsthand its disregard for the impact that its operations have on its neighbors. I am referring to zoning provisos governing noise, litter, lighting, the Fair Grounds patrol, and the security fence that is supposed to have landscaped screening to serve as a buffer between the race track and its neighbors. The latter provision has never been fulfilled, and as a result vast gaps along the fence provide no visual or auditory barrier for neighboring residents. Until the Fair Grounds honors its commitment to follow zoning provisions established 17 years ago, and complied with them, it should not be allowed to modify them to maximize its profits.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "This issue was considered in the very recent past. I understand that those proposing the ordinance were not on the Council at that time, but would respectfully suggest they review all the evidence and commentary submitted at that time before dragging our citizens through this process again. We were lied to about the use of facial recognition in the past. It was used in ways that were intrusive. That's why most agencies were kicked out of the RTCC. The eagerness to resume its use only makes it appear that there is an interest in using it \"at all costs\" again. This is not acceptable. Remember the adage: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.\n\nMore surveillance will not prevent car jackings. It has been proven time and again that these tools do little to nothing to reduce crime. Surveillance is not safety, and we are not under the delusion that it keeps us safer. Using our money and limited resources on something that is already a proven failure and a conduit for abuse is not OK.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Councilmembers today I ask this body for an extension request to file our plans with the Safety and Permits and the clerk\u0092s office for an Affordable Housing Planned Development. This zoning matter was previously approved unanimously by the city council, because of the great need for affordable housing in our city. Thank you for your time and consideration.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Absolutely not right. This is shameful repeal 14 months after the people worked to pass this. This ordinance does not keep people safe.\n\nWe know (again, because we've seen it play out) that expanding policing powers is a bankrupt cycle that ends up filling up jails, solving nothing, and leaves our neighborhoods depleted and broken. I guarantee you that while we're in a crisis that seems to be about crime, the tools of law enforcement that didn't fix it last time aren't going to fix it this time.\n\nI'm asking you as a community leader to continue to demand a different path for the city. Consider the other basic needs of the community (stable sources of food, housing, education, jobs), and I know you'll find the solutions that people need that are in the compassion needed for the moment.\n\nThank you again for taking the time to respond. I hope you vote no on 33,639 as a step forward together.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 3/10/2022", + "publish_date": "3/10/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "USE EVERY TOOL YOU CAN THERE IS NO PRIVACY WHEN YOU ARE IN PUBLIC. \nIF YOU ABUSED HIGH JAIL TIME. \nHELP THE VICTIMS PLEASE.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Councilmembers,\nI support the application of proven, advanced technology to supplement law enforcement activities. NOPD has been shackled by:\n1) A perpetual US Justice Department Consent Decree and overburdening oversight, \n2) The erosion of NOPD command, the dwindling number of patrol staff, and the inability to attract new officers, \n3) An unrelenting explosion in violent crime.\nIf properly implemented and effectively used, License Plate Reader (LPR), facial recognition, and other advanced technology will significantly assist NOPD in the investigation and case closure of violent felonies. Also, predictive, and preventive actions could enable NOPD to get ahead of repetitive criminal activity.\nGive NOPD the tools. If over time, the Consent Decree oversight committee, the District Attorney, or Criminal Judges believe NOPD is abusing the technologies and discriminating against individuals, then they will force NOPD to adjust or cease its use. \nTo further disadvantage the NOPD by prohibiting the use of proven, advanced policing technologies would be negligent.\nThank you for the opportunity to comment.\nSincerely,\nRoger Fullmer", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The use of Surveillance Camera systems has not yielded safety for our community. How many violent offenders were incarcerated compared to the cost of the program? As of today, we see more violence in our streets. So where is the measured return for the investment? Let's review one camera in particular at Hayne and Vincent. A murder happened at that intersection and the false hope of justice was realized when it was determined the camera system was broken. This was after Cox cable determined that the camera was broken over 2 weeks prior to the incident. The next day contractors replaced the camera. Since then there have been dumping and constant car burglaries and a business under redevelopment window bust. I reported this to officers, yet there has not been any follow-up. The criminals know the cameras are ineffective. How effective can it be when there is a culture to wear hoods and full facial masks year-round? As for using cameras to stop dumping, that does not work either. The new camera on Hayne and Paris is only watching an Oak Tree that is being preserved by an unknown group. There was a recent cleanup on Paris Rd. thanks to Councilman Thomas, however, wasn't the camera supposed to catch these people? Can you show us the total investment into the camera system, the number of violent criminals arrested in relation to an investment in family support and mental health, and community development.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "surveillance tech is used on your enemies & adversaries\u0085 wrong for New Orleans", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Our community came together to say 'No' to surveillance and the city must remain accountable to the people's needs.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge you all to not allow the City of NO to use facial reognition technology. I oppose this item. Please d not expand the use of surveillance tools: they are not part of the problems facing the city, and they will only exacerbate the racial inequities we see in our criminal justice systems. Put more money and resources towards our kids and teens, and away from more surveillance!\nI will be watching this vote!\n", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I oppose this ordinance as it unjustly invades the privacy and freedoms of the people of New Orleans.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Your agenda doesn't include what portions of the surveillance ordinance are looking to be rewritten so I am sending the same letter I sent to the full city council when they tried to review this topic in February. Stop trying to sneak turning New Orleans into a surveillance state past your constituency! It's gross and a wild misuse of your power!:\n\nImplementing the proposed ordinance, giving broad discretion to \u0093any city official\u0094 to use surveillance technology to \u0093locate a named suspect\u0094 is poorly drafted, poorly thought out legislation that is inviting a lawsuit on a number of grounds, starting with the 4th Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. \n\nLawsuits that will further tax city resources to defend. I can\u0092t believe, as a former assistant city attorney, that the current city attorney and their staff would allow such poorly drafted legislation to stand as a council item, knowing that this is an indefensible government overreach without any justification that flies in the face of established legal precedence. \n\nThis standard does not require probable cause or sign off from a judge. It does not even require a law enforcement officer to execute it, but any city employee. This ordinance is immediately ripe for abuse. There is no oversight mechanism on who, how, when, and where this technology can be used and absolutely no limits on the type of technology to be used. Additionally, there is no restriction on what can be done with the information once it is obtained. \n\nThe people of New Orleans asked to be safer. They have asked for the police to do their job without harming the individuals of this city, a task they have regularly failed at, as they do not prevent, stop, or solve most crimes in this city. And the city\u0092s response is to give them more money and more tools to surveil us? We did not ask to live in a surveillance state, we asked to be safe. This does nothing to make us safer and in fact is a wild intrusion on our rights to be free. \n\nThere is no definition of \u0093named\u0094, there\u0092s not even a definition of \u0093suspect\u0094 and you want us to give every employee of this city the ability to access private information about its citizens without any formal oversight? Absolutely not. I would oppose this ordinance under the best of circumstances and you have not provided a single good circumstance. \n\nI have serious questions about data related to these intrusive violations of our right to privacy and how it will be stored, who will have access to this information, what will be done to keep the information private, and what should happen should this data be used against someone in a manner not foreseen, which is incredibly likely given the broad applicability of this ordinance. \n\nAdditionally, in a city that already over-policies its communities of color, facial recognition data will most assuredly only further exacerbate this issue and has been shown to be racist. \n\nThis is an absolute overstep by the city under the guise of keeping people safe, when it will actually make us less safe from government invasion into our lives. I do not consent to be surveilled in this manner, I do not consent to having any members of my community surveilled in this manner. I reject the idea that providing an already over-funded police department with more tools for them to abuse keeps us safe in any way. \n\nIt would behoove the city council to remember that their fiduciary obligation is to all citizens of this city, not just the vocal minority that unjustifiably believes they are in danger of violent crime when even the recent uptick in that area is poorly framed and illusory. You have a duty to those that may be accused of a crime as well and to protect their best interests. That means that this proposed ordinance, which only further serves to disenfranchised, should be immediately thrown out.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I meant to say yes", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "New Orleans has heavily invested in surveillance, criminalization, and incarceration, despite there being no evidence that these investments make our city safer. It is actually mind-boggling how much time, energy, and funds have been WASTED relitigating the utility of known failures. Our massive surveillance system is a failure, not only because it does not make us safer, but because it actively harms vulnerable members of our community. The Lens has reported thoroughly on these technologies, how they are prone to racial bias, result in wrongful arrest and imprisonment, and distract from the root causes of crime. Even by debating this bill, you are wasting precious resources. If you choose to pass this ordinance, you are explicitly choosing injustice and active harm.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance tools are a waste of our taxpayer money and distract from systemic solutions. They are not effective in preventing or reducing crime. I\u0092d like to bring to your attention alternatives to reducing crime that don\u0092t rely on more police and prisons. In fact, they actually help contribute to the overall growth and wellbeing of our communities: engaging a robust crisis intervention team, cash payouts to struggling individuals, investing in our schools and injecting educational after-school activities in our neighborhoods, and investing time in our many green spaces. If we create a community that engages with one another, we look out for each other, and the need for surveillance is met through peaceful means. \n\nFor these and other reasons, I implore you to say NO to Ord. 33,639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Yet again, use your position and power to protect New Orleanians from these surveillance tactics (including the use of facial recognition technology) that disproportionately impacts Black communities and communities of color. Vote no!", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "This ordinance is embarrassingly backward. I oppose it, and it should be halted.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a victim of violence and an organizer of the Louisiana Survivors for Reform coalition, I ask the council to vote no on this ordinance. Vote no on investing more time, energy, and money into strategies that criminalize New Orleanians instead of strategies thar heal trauma and intervene in violence. This surveillance program is a dangerous proposal that will not help prevent others from becoming victims of harm. Vote no.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "This surveillance technology has been proven to be biased and should not be implemented in a Majority POC city! (Or any city for that matter)", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Reject this proposal to back slide into racially discriminatory and intrusive policing represented by surveillance cameras. Any benefits of this technology is vastly out weighed by its invasion of our privacy.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote no. NOPD was lying about their use of surveillance tech before, and we all know how racist and dysfunctional predictive policing and facial recognition software are. This would make me feel LESS SAFE if passed.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge the City Council to resist the incorporation of racially biased surveillance technology as a part of its crime-prevention strategy. As a New Orleans resident, I do not believe that crime in our city can be prevented through the use of reactionary responses to the effects of historic divestment in underserved communities. The Council should instead act to fund programs that address root causes of crime while saying no to wasteful measures that make all members of our community less safe.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "No to 33,639! Facial recognition and predictive policing are evidenced to be biased against Black people. New Orleans is not a testing ground for racist technology. Giving NOPD free rein to use racist technology is troubling considering its ongoung lack of transparency and history of misuse regarding surveillance technology. Research shows tgat large scale surveillance strategies are not effective at reducing crime. Please fund people over ineffective, racist surveillance technology. \n\nThank you very much for your consideration.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am writing in opposition to 33,639, which rolls back ordinance 33,201 that was advocated for and overwhelmingly won by the people of New Orleans only two years ago. The fact of the matter is \u0096 while the city officials and NOPD are trying to ram this regressive rollback through council at great cost to our city, we should remember that surveillance technology does not keep our communities safe. \n\nThink about the crises that we are going through that do not get addressed every time we install a new camera, or invest in tools for punishment instead of care. That's what this rollback is about \u0096 it is both materially and ideologically about opposing the movement for Black and brown lives that came together in 2020 to say \"no,\" resoundingly, to policing, police brutality, and the murder of Black and brown people at the hands of police, that incarceration and punishment are not the answers to violence.\n\nThis is Racist Technology TM, that has been proven by data scientists to misidentify Black and brown people and WOMEN at rates far higher than white people and men. Even Chief Ferguson knows this and has noted in public that there are concerns there! A 2019 Study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms CATEGORICALLY do not perform as well when examining the faces of women and people of color. The people of this city already know the poor performance of our city's other technology \u0096 just look at how the Sewerage and Water Board overcharges people regularly! Now they're asking us to trust that this technology that has proven anti-Black, anti-Women bias will work perfectly? That's not acceptable. That doesn't keep us safe.\n\nTo that end, the only thing besides RACIAL PROFILING that this technology does is WASTE OUR CITY'S RESOURCES on profit-driven corporations, using this city's coffers as their own personal piggy bank. We should be well aware that there are scam artists out there trying to make a buck off of surveilling our citizens. That's exactly what council subpoenaed the mayor about with the ongoing \"Smart Cities\" debacle. I am asking city council to show the same level of scrutiny here, and oppose this ordinance. The expensive technology is not the answer to our city\u0092s problems.\n\nWe should be sending our resources elsewhere \u0096 healthcare, childcare, education, how about housing our residents? We are all struggling day-to-day right now in the face of price-gouging on everything from healthcare costs, astronomical rent, food, fuel, and the list goes on. Instead, all this ordinance does is waste money on artificial intelligence. \n\nCouncil, respectfully, please use your ACTUAL intelligence and vote no on this 33,639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Don\u0092t do this. This technology affects isn\u0092t accurate when identifying Black people and if there\u0092s anything this city/state need less of, it\u0092s ruining more Black lives by incarcerating them. If you want to help with crime problems in New Orleans, work to alleviate poverty. Establish rent control and a living wage. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world. If putting people in jail did ANYTHING to fix crime, we would have the least of it anywhere in the world. Don\u0092t sell us out so some surveillance company can make a profit off of incarcerating our people. I\u0092m a voter and I\u0092ll be watching.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Natalie Sharp and I am the Coordinator for New Orleans Voices for Accountability and Safety (NOVAS). We are a volunteer group originally formed under the Safety and Justice Challenge to ensure that community voices are taken into consideration when decisions are made that impact the criminal legal system. I am writing today to voice our opposition to Ord. 33,639.\n\nOne of the primary functions of NOVAS is to hold stakeholders accountable to their commitment to safely reduce the jail population here in New Orleans. In order to hold stakeholders accountable to policy, we have to know what those policies are, and what tools they have at their disposal to enforce them. Prior to the passage of the ordinance banning this technology in 2020, members of the community were assured that no ban was necessary, because law enforcement was not using these harmful surveillance technologies anyway. Come to find out, NOPD had been secretly using facial recognition software through its partnership with Louisiana State Police (who are currently under federal investigation by the DOJ for use of excessive force and racially biased policing). This lack of transparency confirms that we need safeguards in place to protect the public from racially biased and harmful policing.\n\nWe also know these technologies have been historically weaponized to target Black and brown communities, and that facial recognition algorithms are more likely to mis-identify non-white faces. In a city where 86% of the jail population is Black (compared to 60% of the general population), we should be looking for ways to reduce ethnic and racial disparities in our criminal legal system. This ordinance would be a step in the wrong direction.\n\nFinally, there is no evidence that additional surveillance does anything to prevent or reduce crime. We are in agreement that all New Orleanians deserve to feel safe in their own city, but safety does NOT come from additional policing or surveillance measures. We ask that you instead invest in long-term solutions such as affordable and available housing, employment opportunities and fair wages, childcare and education, and other programs that deter crime from occurring in the first place. This is the path to a better New Orleans, not further criminalization of its residents.\n\nCommunity members have spoken loud and clear. We do not want surveillance technology that is expensive, racially biased, and ultimately ineffective at preventing or reducing crime. I ask you to oppose Ord. 33,639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We should not need to surrender our right to privacy for safety, profit, convenience, progress or any other justification the government may bring our way. There will always be thousands of reasons to violate the Bill of Rights - that is why the document is necessary. To remind us shortcuts do not trump what we are guaranteed by our government.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Not unless we put cameras in all of your offices to make sure the members of this city government aren't breaking the law either", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "This amendment to the technology ordinance has been well thought out and vetted. It is extremely important that city councilmembers vote for this amendment to Section 147-2. Otherwise, you are tying the hands of our law enforcement officers. We must all work together to fight crime. This is a step in the right direction.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "i am writing because i am against using facial recognition technology. research shows that large scale surveillance is not effective at reducing crime and is an infringement of our right to privacy", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We all want to feel safe in our city, but Ord. 33639 is a step in the wrong direction. I write to you to say in the strongest possible terms that surveillance does not equal safety. In fact, given the racist history of surveillance and the current racial biases built into surveillance technologies, the city\u0092s use of surveillance technologies to monitor and control its residents actually decreases safety for Black and brown New Orleanians and erodes public trust in a government meant to protect us all. The City Council made the right move in December 2020 with the passage of Ord 33021. Please say NO to Ord. 33639.\n\nBefore giving NOPD free reign to use New Orleans as a testing ground for wasteful and racist technology, we need comprehensive civil liberty protections in place and transparent reporting on the use of technology. The money spent purchasing and acquiring new surveillance technologies could be used instead to address the root problems of crime: funding affordable housing, job training programs, revamping the RTA, and freedom from criminalization.\n\nAs your constituent, I urge you to vote NO on Ord. 33639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am strongly opposed to this ordinance. Surveillance doesn't prevent crime, it just takes racism high-tech. We continue to go back to the tired old well of \"Cops and Cameras\" when we know that the root cause of crime is a lack of resources and opportunities, while we watch our city's infrastructure continue to crumble and our communities poor mental health get little more than lip service. Why are you still trying to throw money at the laziest solution possible when we know prevention is what is needed, not more penalization? Poor wages for life guards means fewer pools, a curfew that kicks kids out of the French Quarter before the sun is even down, and now this threat of constant, panopticon style surveillance is cruel and small minded. Rather than de-escalating the situation, you're creating a pressure cooker this summer. Please invest in our communities, rather than continue to attempt to turn our city into an open air prison.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition tech doesn't reduce crime, all it does is invade our privacy and give the cops another way to pick and choose who they brutalize (aka they will deploy this in a racist manner like everything else they use).", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I vote NO to 33,639.\nResearch has shown that large scale surveillance strategies are not effective at reducing crime. Fund people over ineffective, racist surveillance tech.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "New Orleans\nIn support of item 3, to lift the ban on facial recognition.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "This type of surveillance is pantently unconstitutional and an infringement on the rights of the people of New Orleans\u0097 your constituents. It does not make us safer and honestly, it\u0092s pretty terrifying. You say it\u0092s just for the \u0093big crimes,\u0094 but once this technology is in the hands of the powerful, we all know there will be no limits. There\u0092s a reason NOPD was under a consent decree for almost a decade. The vote to ban this software was the right vote two years ago and that vote should be upheld. Don\u0092t bend to political pressure to win short term praise; do the right thing because it\u0092s the best thing for our people. Please vote against this ordinance.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Stop wasting money on antiquated defense tactics and begin investing back into the communities where these kids come from. Put money back into our public schools, educate the youth, and stop ignoring the systemic failures that are producing our rising crime rate!", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Why are the cameras always facing us, the average citizen? Why are we burdened with the assumption of criminality when there is criminal neglect emanating from our city government? Surveillance doesn\u0092t reduce crime, and our taxpayer funded $40million-plus camera network is a prime example considering our current crime increase. It\u0092s a pretty band aid for the city to hide behind, an easy gadget for pretending to be proactive about solutions. The crime spike is a symptom of systemic issues and surveillance does not solve them.\n\nDuring the city council meeting last week, a fireman made a public comment on bolstering mental health crisis response. This was brought up in regards to domestic violence and would be an actual proactive approach, a popular one at that, to that type of criminal act. We can use this initiative an apply it to other factors that lead to the insurmountable stress and desperation that leads people to commit crimes, like investing in public schools instead of the charter scam, green spaces and recreation, and financial stability programs like universal basic income.\n\nThe software analyzing the footage from the cameras is still inherently racist. Images of white faces are more easily processed which means black and brown people are disproportionately misidentified. This feeds our systemically racist judicial system instead of reforming it. The city council would be ill advised to approve this ordinance, toss this band-aid non-solution out, let\u0092s get some proactive solutions instead of reactive ones that don\u0092t work.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Facial recognition is terrifying and beyond Orwellian. You do NOT represent New Orleans by allowing experimental software for potential policing. Why must you always think of the the citizens last? We don\u0092t want this, we don\u0092t need this, nothing good will come of for the actual people of New Orleans. Shame on you.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am writing in opposition to this ordinance. Surveillance technology has no place in a just New Orleans. Facial recognition has been proven to be biased against Black people, and NOPD has a troubling history of lack of transparency and misuse of surveillance technology. We need to say no to racist tech being implemented in our city.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I don\u0092t support the use of facial recognition technology in this city. It has proven to be discriminatory and is a waste of money given that it doesn\u0092t address the root cause of crime: poverty. Our city\u0092s money and our taxes would be much better spent on programs to provide for New Orleanians needs and to enhance education and combat poverty. Then and only then will crime decrease.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Our community spoke loud and clear when the original ordinance was passed, and we do not want this type of surveillance in New Orleans. \n\nWhile I understand that the council feels an obligation to do something in light of public outrage over crime, passing this ordinance is an empty gesture that will ultimately cause more harm in our community. We know from extensive data that surveillance does not stop crime or make cities safer, and ignoring the overwhelming data in favor of political fanfare is disrespectful to the constituents that you serve. The millions of dollars spent on the existing surveillance cameras have done nothing to deter or prevent crime or alleviate NOPD staffing issues. We should be spending money on community services like developing affordable housing, free and low-cost healthcare, expanding public transit, and creating well-paying jobs with good benefits. \n\nInstead of supporting people whose needs are not being met, this ordinance will contribute to privacy violations and target already vulnerable communities in New Orleans. Please vote no on the ordinance.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Would like to emphatically oppose this measure", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am in favor of reinstating the facial recognition surveillance technology. It isn't perfect but it is a good tool for fighting crime.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance tools are not effective in preventing or reducing crime. From 2019 to today, crime has risen amid rising surveillance. This is a waste of our taxpayer money and distracts from systemic solutions. There are so many alternatives to reducing crime that don't rely on more police and prisons, such as engaging a robust crisis intervention team, continuing cash payments to folks who are struggling, investing in our schools and in green space, and much more! Surveillance tools of all types continue to show racial bias and entrench racist systems, no matter who is creating the algorithm or watching the camera. The consent decree over NOPD is about restoring people's individual liberties. Investing in more surveillance counters this objective and goes against the larger social trend of increasing skepticism of surveillance in our lives. \n", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please do not allow for more surveillance technology in New Orleans. I know our city has a crime issue but this isn\u0092t going to fix anything. We\u0092re moving in the wrong direction: criminalizing our community instead of helping. Instead of putting money into this bandaid, please consider the necessary surgery our citizens need like universal basic income, work training programs, after school programs, non violent training. It\u0092s not a quick fix, but it can\u0092t do anymore damage or put more people in prisons than surveillance technology that has been proven over and over both ineffective and racist.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote \"No\" on Ordinance 33,639. This ordinance is reactive and bad for a number of reasons. The city currently spends millions of dollars on surveillance programs that do nothing to curtail or discourage even the most violent acts of crime. Surveillance technologies have proven to be inherently racist. Giving NOPD carte blanche to use surveillance tools is troubling given their demonstrated history of dishonesty around the department's use of facial recognition software. The city should invest in execellent education, affordable housing, food security--living conditions that prevent crime and promote pubic safety--instead of sinking taxpayer dollars into surveilling, policing and imprisoning its citizens.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The crime in New Orleans is growing and the number of NOPD officers is shrinking. Technology must fill the gap. In my opinion the residents of New Orleans overwhelmingly support this Amendment. Facial recognition has become a commonplace tool for law enforcement officers at both the federal and municipal levels. Of the approximately 42 federal agencies that employ law enforcement officers, the GAO discovered in 2021 that about half used facial recognition. Of course the use of this technology is not without challenges and limitations, which is why the Brookings Institute, in its paper presented to the American Bar Association Antitrust Spring Meeting last month, supported this technology with the installation of some safeguards.\n\nSection 147-2, subsection (d) establishes reasonable safeguards. Face surveillance technology can only be used in very specific situations and evidence obtained from face surveillance alone shall not be sufficient to establish probable cause for the purpose of effectuating an arrest. \n\nIn addition, there must be appropriate training and frequent model validation to ensure effective and appropriate use of this technology. Appropriate training and model validation are necessary to prevent the unfair or inaccurate profiling of people of color. Safeguards are appropriate to ensure everyone is treated fairly.\n\nI understand that there is no \"singular answer\" to the violent crime surge occurring in this City. I recognize that the answer is complex and the solution will not occur overnight. As a resident of this City, I am literally begging you to take appropriate action and approve this Amendment. It will protect our residents and assist our police officers with investigating crime and locating violent criminals with arrest warrants. Please do the right thing!!\n\n", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am against Ordinance 33,639 since there is not evidence that increasing surveillance in this way will lead to any significant decrease in crime. These tools have been shown to not only be ineffective but have a high risk of false positives, often inordinately impacting communities of color creating a more hostile environment. The resources that would go to additional surveillance could easily be used for other services helping non-violent offenders in ways that will actually decrease crime and support those in need while the majority of the police can re-focus on more pressing crime around the city. The Council Mayor, and Police should focus on techniques that actually work rather than reactionary measures that will only hurt the city more in the long run.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The people have chimed in again and again that more surveillance is not the way to safety in our city. Councilwoman Moreno has lots of alternatives that will help NOPD streamline their services without resorting to invasive, racially biased, and expensive tools. Technology isn\u0092t a panacea - we need to take a hard look at what safety really means and remember that for many folks police make people feel UNSAFE. During times of hysteria around crime people resort to unhelpful solutions like more police and surveillance that does nothing to keep all of us safer, things like investing in more green space, more jobs, cash payments that support our neighbors who are struggling the most instead of criminalizing them. If you pass this ordinance you will look back in 20 years and regret it! Thank you for your consideration.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I stand firmly in opposition to Ordinance 33,639 and what it proposes for the city of New Orleans. Nearly 18 months ago, residents collectively decided that surveillance would not keep us safe. Despite the gun violence and carjackings that many New Orleanians have seen on the news or unfortunately have experienced, surveillance technologies will still not keep us safe. They provide the perception of safety with none of the actual benefits. Surveillance tech is not a force multiplier. It is not a deterrent of criminal activity. It does not increase public safety.\n\nThese are reactive and costly tools that have been misused by other municipalities across the country, led to the misidentification and incorrect arrest of Black people and are rooted in the violent, inhumane and racist history of slavery. Since 2017, over 10 million dollars has been spent on surveilance in New Orleans and we have absolutely nothing to show for it.\n\nThere's been much debate and discussion for well over a year about the rise in crime that we've been experiencing. Crime is loosely defined as \"an action or omission that constitutes an offense.\" As we attempt to push along and through year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, crime is the historic levels of unemployment our residents face. Crime is the lack of affordable housing due to the continual inundation of Air B&Bs. Crime is the food insecurity that leads to dozens upon dozens of cars parked hours in advance outside of weekly Culture Aid NOLA food distribution sites, crime is the repeated closing of schools and lapse in education that our youth experience due to an ineffective charter system.\n\nAll of these things and so much more could begin to be solved by the money that continues to be pumped into the city's surveillance apparatus and police department. I urge the members of the Criminal Justice Committee to say no to additional forms of surveillance and no to Ordinance 33,639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 6/15/2022", + "publish_date": "6/15/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The city should not be spending money on or supporting the implementation of surveillance equipment and programs. Such equipment and the supporting programs have proven unreliable and biased, targeting people of color and the poorest of the community at higher rates. The shady doings of the new Nola Coalition is disgusting and does nothing to instill trust in it. If the city and Coalition really want to make an impact on crime rates, they need to address the lack of affordable housing, jobs that pay adequately, the grift of Entergy, and invest in youth programs at a higher rate.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Police have more money and power than ever before in history. Hundreds of millions of dollars given to NOPD has resulted in a lower quality of life for New Orleanians. Allowing police more power thru facial recognition and increased surveillance will have dire consequences. Those who will suffer the most will be those who are already the most disadvantaged in our community - Black New Orleanians, poor New Orleanians, LGBTQ New Orleanians, etc. Cameras everywhere and hundreds of millions of dollars for their budget and the police still can\u0092t stop crime. What will it take? Surveillance on each block? Tens of millions more in funding? The fact is that police are not here to protect the people, but rather the property rights of the ruling class. New Orleanians are suffering enough. Tracking and spying on us will not solve crime. But it will expand crimes committed by the police.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The solution to crime is wealth equality, not surveillance.\n\n\"Inequality has a strong and robust impact on violent crime\" -MIT Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 82, Issue 4\n\u0093There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil \u0094 \u0096Plato\n\u0093The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles\u0094 \u0096Plato\n\nStop wasting time & money playing eternal whack-a-mole and instead strike at the root.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Police and government agencies have used spying tactics throughout history for nefarious purposes - MLK, Malcom X, COINTELPRO, etc. Facial recognition and surveillance cameras are the modern equivalent. We do not even know what the full spectrum of consequences in the future will be by giving the police this much unquestioned power. But we do know that these technologies are inherently racist and specifically target Black communities. NOPD says they need this technology to solve crime. But their budget is already hundreds of millions of dollars. The crime rate is high specifically because our communities are being robbed of resources that are funneled to the police. We should have a right to privacy. More police overreach is not the answer.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am requesting a change to amend and re-ordain Section 147-2 of the Code of the City of New Orleans which pertains to the use of surveillance.\nRetaining and implementing 'facial recognition' by surveillance must be a greater priority now, especially in light of increased crime in the city and especially my area of concern in the East. If there is a reason why anyone is opposed to this motion it's probably due to the lack of 'right to privacy'. However, there are homes, businesses, the workplace and corporations, etc. with monitoring devices on their properties. Many TV stations employ cameras at strategic street corners, and there are locations you can download from your computer or smart phone. Now is the time to aggressively implement plans to use drones or other comparable devices to assist in the reduction of unlawful activity in our communities. THANK YOU!!", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please vote against Surveillance Cameras. To again point out: Surveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms do not perform as well when examining the faces of women, people of color, the elderly, and children. Additionally, video surveillance has not been proven effective! Criminologists studying camera deployments say there is no evidence they prevent or reduce crime. Thank you!", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance technologies must not be used by New Orleans against its citizens. This technology is an invasion of privacy for all citizens. It will create at atmosphere akin to that of an open air prison. Those in control of this technology will be unelected, and will use it against the common democratic wishes of the people. The collateral damage will fall on the youth, the immigrants, oppressed nationalities and the marginalized. Federal and state agents will not hesitate to co-opt this tech against us.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "We don't need more Surveillance, we need less. Please block this ordnance", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This invasive call for surveillance will not stop or prevent crime. Surveillance technology is inherently racist as facial recognition for Black people can be vague. It's an invasion of privacy for all New Orleans residents. With such proposal New Orleans will turn into a surveillance state that only responds to crime. It's obvious the city's crime prevention tactics are at most completely absent and monotonous. The amount of money that will be spent on this technology could benefit youth recreation programs, infrastructure in low income neighborhoods. New Orleans is in a crisis and it is only a matter of time before the damage becomes irreversible. When looking at the issues of this city don't always look externally, look at yourselves and the work you're doing. Do you care about the actual people of this land or your political track record? Out of all the fruitful solutions, Black decision makers want to spend city tax dollars to advance public surveillance in a majority Black city. I'm pleading to you all that this is not the way to nurse our city back to health. If this type of surveillance is instilled, this city will go down a road that will stifle and kill the spirit and culture of the residents, spirits, and cultural bearers of this land.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I write in full support of allowing NOPD to initiate use of all available technologies in their work to address the violent crime devastating our city. I strongly urge all members of the council to pass this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The idea of using public funds on experimental and racist technology is absurd and dangerous. We don't need more new ways to police folks who are already suffering from lack of resources this money could be channeled into. Our priorities should be set on housing, food access and education, not policing with robots.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The fact that the council is seriously considering this ordinance given this moment of increasing fascism in this country- at all levels of government and society- is frankly terrifying. Given the totality of evidence of over a century of NOPD corruption, abuse & their inability to make our communities safer, it seems negligent to once again consider giving them more access to tools & technologies that are frankly dangerous. Especially in a moment when there is a clear, demonstrated need across so many basic aspects of life for New Orleanians: affordable housing, healthcare, utility bills, debt, un-liveable wages, trauma from hurricanes & pandemics. Simultaneously there is overwhelming evidence across multiple research sectors showing that violence is prevented most effectively by meeting these needs. And there is overwhelming public awareness and support for alternatives to policing, for community investment and policies that will immediately alleviate widespread, preventable suffering. You consider this ordinance as we can all look at an uncertain near future- so close we can feel it- in which fascist, authoritarian governments use the power of ubiquitous surveillance to repress political dissent, free expression, or even to spy on and target entire communities with genocidal intent. Even now, we face a present moment filled with fear about where people can access healthcare like abortion, or children will be able to learn about or talk about in school, or whether trans people will be allowed to exist in Louisiana. You cannot promise us safety, accountability or oversight with these tools. You can\u0092t. And even if you could, this is not what we want and this will not make us any safer. Lastly, seeing as how the council has previously sought to investigate the Mayor\u0092s office contract process under the Smart City\u0092s initiative, it seems odd that this council would not pursue a serious investigation of the allegations of misconduct pertaining to the so-called \u0093NOLA Coalition\u0092s\u0094 involvement in publicly pushing for this ordinance. Specifically the role of GNO Inc. and its key partners who have allegedly engaged in widespread manipulation, misinformation and the inappropriate use of private funds to coerce the participation of community organizations. A group pushing for technologies that would- at minimum- require deep & sustained levels of trust, transparency & oversight, should not be engaged in back room dealing, adding coalition members without knowledge or consent, or flying to Israel to meet with surveillance tech companies that currently contract with JPSO. Especially when key the people involved have a documented history of enabling and participating in Palantir\u0092s secretive and potentially unconstitutional \u0093predictive policing\u0094 program in New Orleans- especially those formerly employed by the Mayor. This fact alone should give this council great pause. People\u0092s lives are on the line. There is no good version of this ordinance. We deserve so much better.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This zombie ordinance just doesn't know when to die. No matter how you package it, any carveouts for the existing ban will only harm residents, and will open the way for more surveillance technologies to be used. The NOLA Coalition is actively engaging with surveillance technology companies in Israel. Why would they do that? Because this ordinance keeps getting introduced. Instead of listening to business & real estate owners, listen to the deluge of opposition comments this gets everytime it's on the docket. It's bad legislation that won't make our city safer, but will diminish civil rights and increase policing on Black neighborhoods. Vote no.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Block this from happening. Not needed. Waste of money.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "We do not need to sacrifice hard fought reforms to our criminal legal system in order to keep New Orleanians safe. The answer is not to go backward. The answer is to invest in our communities. Vote no on increased surveillance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am firmly opposed to allowing facial recognition software use by the NOPD. Facial recognition software is demonstrably ineffective when applied to persons of color. The NOPD has neither the training nor the desire to utilize any such software subject to its inherent limitations. The NOPD cannot be trusted with this weaponized tool.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This Ordinance enables the City's use of technology in ways that will erode the civil rights of its residents. The technology is invasive, flawed, and susceptible to abuse. Facial recognition, for example, falsely identifies people of color as criminals. It empowers racial profiling and results in the targeting and arrest of innocent people. This technology is not the crime-fighting tool that its proponents claim; it is a weapon that destroys the community's trust. I strongly urge the City Council to reject this Ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge you to block ordinance 33,808. Facial recognition software is faulty and an invasion of privacy completely at odds with our most basic civil liberties. We need address the current crime wave in our city but this is not the way to do it. \n\nSurveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms do not perform as well when examining the faces of women, people of color, the elderly, and children. Additionally, video surveillance has not been proven effective! Criminologists studying camera deployments say there is no evidence they prevent or reduce crime.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This measure must not pass. Surveillance of the population is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and surveillance on the part of the police, as with any systemic criminalization measure, is expensive\u0097using moneys that could be applied to the public welfare in innumerable ways\u0097ineffective and disproportionately and negatively affects Black members of our community. New Orleans should be a safe place for all citizens, and that safety is not accomplished by criminalizing citizens, applying Panoptic tactics, watching people at all times and waiting for crimes to take place. There are far better ways to use our tax dollars to address poverty and violence in New Orleans.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I wonder what could be accomplished if our municipal government did not require such astounding vigilance. I write, again, to urge you, again, to vote against expanding our massive, unregulated surveillance state, again. We have been embroiled in this fight for more than two years. The December 2020 ordinance banning facial recognition and other technologies was already largely defanged by removing the provision requiring public scrutiny of further expansions of our massive, unregulated surveillance state. And now, here we are, retreading the same ground, bringing up the same arguments about racial bias, abuse, and overwhelming investment ostensibly for public safety but which does not make anyone safer. I am ashamed and astounded at the utter wastefulness of again and again spending precious time and public attention, to try to justify giving even more of our city's resources to carceral solutions. I hope that you defeat this ordinance and let it die. How many more times can I continue to write the same sentiment, and hope that at some point, it sinks in?", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am opposed to Ord. 33,808. It will expand the City\u0092s ability to use ineffective, expensive, and racially biased surveillance tools, which do not keep all New Orleanians safe.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The inaccuracy inherent in police face surveillance causes real-world harms. \n\nFace recognition systems provide a means for identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using their face. These systems can be used to identify people in photos, videos, or in real-time. However, face recognition software is notoriously bad at recognizing women, young people, African Americans, and other ethnic minorities, often misidentifying them. \n\nThis disparity threatens to exacerbate well-documented racially-biased police practices. Law enforcement databases\u0097including mugshot databases\u0097unjustifiably include a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants. An inaccurate system will implicate people for crimes they did not commit, shifting the burden onto innocent people to show they are not who the system mistakenly says they are.\nFace recognition uniquely impacts civil liberties. \n\nIn his majority opinion in the watershed Carpenter v. United States (2018), Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: \u0093A person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing in the public sphere.\u0094 Yet, government use of face surveillance threatens to do just that. \n\nThis dangerous technology threatens not only Fourth Amendment freedoms of privacy, but also First Amendment freedoms of speech and association. Recently, millions of students took part in a global climate strike calling for environmental justice. Before the recent era of powerful face surveillance technology, there was very little likelihood that the government would identify a protester, and be able to use knowledge of their First Amendment activity to deprive them of future access to employment, housing, or education. With widespread deployment of face surveillance technology, that is no longer the case. In fact, face surveillance has already been used to target people engaged in First Amendment-protected activity. \n\nThe threat to essential liberties extends far beyond political rallies. Images captured outside houses of worship, medical facilities, schools, community centers, or homes could reveal familial, political, religious and sexual partnerships. This threat is heightened by the disturbing record of law enforcement agencies\u0092 failure to securely maintain sensitive personal information they collect about innocent people. And unlike a social security number or driver\u0092s license number, we can\u0092t change our faces. \nhttps://www.eff.org/aboutface/why", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "For those who are living their best lives and live in white areas where the police actually patrol or who can afford to pay for patrols, unlike the forced victims of the largest Black communities in New Orleans, you may not realize the consequences of these relentless choices to use city funds to never patrol our low to moderate income Black communities. That is the first reason that A Community Voice objects to the new surveillance purchase that it is yet another decoy for real police work when there is next to no community patrols in Black neighborhoods, and yet plenty of widespread shootouts and murders? Why is there such a dodge on properly handling 101 community policing? Yet, spending money for new contracts is an addiction.\n\nWe have 3x the average number of pregnant women murdered here and I daresay they are all Black, but no one seems to be naming out this situation or investigating this. Buy some software and it won't fix that.\n\nFacial recognition has been rejected by other cities* because it is ineffective and discriminates primarily against Black women, the largest single population constituency of our city. Why would you vote for something that so many fine entities show that consistently discriminates against Black women?\n\nWe agree and support those who are studying surveillance and the impact on civil rights at Eye on Surveillance: Before giving NOPD free reign to use New Orleans as a testing ground for wasteful and racist technology, we need comprehensive civil liberty protections in place and transparent reporting on the use of technology. The money spent purchasing and acquiring new surveillance technologies could be used instead to address the root problems of crime: funding affordable housing, job training programs, revamping the RTA, and freedom from criminalization.\n\nAs your constituents, we urge you to address crime through actual effective measures, and use these funds to do so. Please vote NO on Ord.33,808. Thank you.\n\n*https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-discrimination-in-face-recognition-technology/", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Do not expand use of surveillance technology. It is at best ineffective amd expensive, at worst it perpetuates disparate racial impacts on the community.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The use of surveillance technology is NOT a best practice in resource usage. In addition, it is inherently racist and ineffective. There are cameras across the city that already do not stop or deter crime from happening. This would be an awful \u0093investment\u0094 in our city.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "A healthy community isn't tracked and trapped and watched. A healthy community has good schools, good jobs, and public resources for EVERYONE, and not just for the rich scumbags who think they can eat money and own the world.\n\nMore cops and cameras won't fix our problems, they'll only drain resources and consume lives. Vote no on this detestable proposal.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The Donna Villa Neighborhood Association (DVNA) encourages adoption of Regular 24. CAL. NO. 33,808. As written, the ordinance to amend and preordain Section 147-2 of the Code of the City of New Orleans regulations pertaining to the City's use of surveillance technology; is appropriately written/drafted to regulate facial recognition rather than ban it. Based on our research, regulating facial recognition rather than banning it is consistent with actions initiated by other cities across the U.S.. A continued ban of the use of such technology in New Orleans would be a welcome mat to criminals leaving other cities using old and new technology to minimize placing their officers in life threatening situations while providing effective tools for fighting crime that often drives criminals to other cities less prepared. \n\nThe DVNA's support for this change is consistent with the immediate and actionable tactics outlined by The NOLA Coalition (186 unique members representing businesses and organizations within New Orleans) in their July 12, 2022 press release (Refer to NOLA Coalition Press Release Track 1 of 2, Technology Section, bullet points 1 through 5 for specifics). Since I plan to attend the July 21st Council Meeting and I will have a copy of the referenced press release for Council's reference if desired.\n\nRespectfully,\nGlenn M. Braud, Sr.\n\n", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I do not support any expansion of surveillance technologies in New Orleans. They are ineffective at reducing crime, and have a disproportionately negative effect on Black people. That should be enough alone to say \"no\", but it is also worth noting that any increase in surveillance technology in this time of criminalized healthcare will almost certainly lead to arrests for abortions and for assisting someone to get abortion care. (Though city officials have pledged to not prosecute abortions, I do not think it will be long before the state finds a way around such policies.) State police using city surveillance data to prosecute someone who sought healthcare after a miscarriage, for example, may be just a sad reality in the future. We shouldn't use our tax dollars to fund our own future persecution. These programs are unjust, expensive, and don't reduce crime. \"Guardrails\" for surveillance technology aren't enough--keep this stuff out of our city entirely.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am writing with staunch opposition to amending our current blanket ban on surveillance technologies. These technologies do not make us safer, they only make the lives of black and brown residents less safe. They are unproven and ineffective. We passed the original ban on these technologies in December 2020 in response to historic civil rights protest about police brutality\u0097why would we want to undo this progress?", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support allowing the police and city to use facial recognition technology. Our police need every tool available that will help them keep the city safe. I understand people\u0091s concerns that the city may not put the technology to good use - like they don\u0092t keep up the cameras in the streets. This is true, but it doesn\u0092t mean that they should be prevented from using the facial recognition technology. We need more technology like this in our policing. We should have more license plate readers too.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I write to oppose Regular 24. CAL. NO. 33,808. I have serious concerns about its implications for citizen privacy and the racial biases that research has found in such surveillance technology. I would rather see the city focus on addressing the root causes of crime in our city than creating a police state that erodes civil rights, particularly for Black and Brown members of our community. I urge the council to vote NO on Regular 24. CAL. NO. 33,808.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "It is well established that this this surveillance technology is flawed and its design tends to distort identity with an inherent racist bias.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Dear Councilmembers,\nI am opposed to the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technologies for the danger they pose in a free society. Though you are under great pressure to \"do something\" about crime and I know you all sincerely do want to work toward a safer community, the social price paid by the racial impact and ineffective results of these technologies is TOO HIGH. \n\nPlease vote no to this ordinance (33,808) and continue to support fighting against the racism, economic inequity and all true roots of this crime problem - and support the programs to help families thrive. I know the state is a hindrance to local progressive policies - please use your voice and platforms to find allies across the region and state to allow us to raise wages in all businesses in the city, require paid sick and family leave, fund programs and facilities to better educate and provide recreation to young people. These will bear fruit - those facial recognition and surveillance technologies will bear only trouble at worst - disappointment in wasted resources at best.\n\nSincerely,\n\nJulie Schwam Harris\n\n", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms do not perform as well when examining the faces of women, people of color, the elderly, and children. Additionally, video surveillance has not been proven effective! Criminologists studying camera deployments say there is no evidence they prevent or reduce crime.\n\nNow's the time to to BLOCK Ord. 33,808 and stop the use of racist surveillance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Our community does not need hyper surveillance as a means of protection. This kind of digital surveillance only leads to hyper policing of black and brown people and our communities with very little community oversight. We have a city ordinances against amplifying our surveillance state for a reason - people in the community do not feel safer with this kind of surveillance. This is a continuation of the plantation state that continues to oppress utmost marginalized in our communities.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "We all want to feel safe and at ease in our homes and our city. This ordinance does not make us any safer. As a survivor of violence and an organizer with Louisiana Survivors for Reform, I am exhausted by the continued expansion of surveillance and policing that does not prevent crime nor heal trauma for victims. This proposal is a terrible strategy and will only increase the harm done to Black and Brown communities who are already the residents most impacted by crime and violence. We need our leaders to invest in and expand the things that make cities actually safer like affordable housing, mental health support, and restorative justice practices. Survivors of crime are sick of seeing the same cycles of violence repeat and the same ineffective methods used. Vote no on this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Please consider my comment below. We need solutions quickly to curb the rampant and widespread crime, vandalism, killing in New Orleans. Otherwise, the law abiding good citizens will leave, leaving the criminals behind. \n\nIt appears we have enough dysfunctional management in our criminal justice system from all levels to describe a crises. E.G., from a constrained, debilitated, and weakened police force to low bonds or no bonds by magistrates, to 701 releases, refused charges or reduced charges by the DA, to ineffective sentences or probation by the judiciary. \nThe latest published video of an horrific execution in broad daylight just blocks from the French Quarter and CBD underscores what the condition our current criminal justice system has produced for community safety. \nNew Orleans is worth fighting for and needs renewed support and encouragement of our police department. \nI strongly urge the City Council to restore the use of facial recognition by passing the Surveillance Ordinance at its meeting on July 21. By issuing technology tools back to our NOPD as well as other tools they need we are giving strength back to our men and women in Blue.\nI also request the City Council to review the procedures NOPD uses to collect information on crime that is reported. I have heard and read of several cases where NOPD either refused to come out to crime scenes or refused to take/accept video of the persons in the act of committing the crime. NOPD should use all the information and tools available to capture criminals. Then, of course, the justice system has to either restrain these persons or reform them.\nEnough with the reoccurring crime!!\nNew Orleans government leaders are responsible for protecting its citizens.\nSo, please protect us.\nThank you, \n\nKim Harvey\n109 Lark St\nNew Orleans LA 70124", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I, Kourtney Youngblood, hereby denounce the repeal of this ruling. It is in direct opposition of the protection of our citizen\u0092s rights. It is an infringement upon our people\u0092s freedoms. I believe that this is, in reality, a campaign and threat to integrate another form of dangerous practices in order to sell out our community members\u0092 privacy to tech and \u0093security\u0094 companies that are only concerned with making deals with law enforcement and government officials at the expense of our God-given freedom of personal confidence. I contend that our local government has far more pressing concerns that threaten our people\u0092s well being, such as the predatory practices of energy companies, low-wages, housing and the indisputable inequality of treatment of our underserved and vulnerable community members of our city.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The mere thought of expanding law enforcement's surveillance powers in this city should give the council pause. Further surveillance will do absolutely nothing for public safety and will only result in the further mistreatment of marginalized communities, all while eroding our right to privacy ever further. I urge the council to vote down any and all of these egregious threats to our rights.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms do not perform as well when examining the faces of women, people of color, the elderly, and children. Additionally, video surveillance has not been proven ineffective! Criminologists studying camera deployments say there is no evidence they prevent or reduce crime.\n\nNow's the time to BLOCK Ord. 33,808 and stop the use of racist surveillance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I ask for a no vote on the surveillance issue.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I urge you to block this ordinance. Increased surveillance is unjust and will not prevent crime. Spend the money on the community instead!", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. A 2019 study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that face recognition algorithms do not perform as well when examining the faces of women, people of color, the elderly, and children. Additionally, video surveillance has not been proven effective! Criminologists studying camera deployments say there is no evidence they prevent or reduce crime.\n\nNow's the time to to BLOCK Ord. 33,808 and stop the use of racist surveillance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance doesn\u0092t prevent crimes. We need to invest that money in programs that offer activities for children and in affordable housing for families rather than the police state. Poverty begets crime. Please vote against Eye on Surveilance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "No to surveillance. No to increasing money and tools for criminalizing and penalizing people who are trying to survive. This is a reactive measure that won\u0092t make people safer. It will give the illusion of safety for business leaders while improving nothing for the average New Orleanian. Equally troubling is the relationship being built between the city of New Orleans and the apartheid state of Israel, known for exporting surveillance and policing tools that are called out in human rights abuses against Palestinians. We have spoken against expanding surveillance time and time again and it\u0092s time city council listens to the people, not just to special business interests. Being \u0091tough on crime\u0092 means addressing the root causes, like investing time and money in our youth, in green spaces, in better transportation and education. PLEASE do better.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The police do not stop or prevent crime or create safety. Period. Need we remind you that four hundred police officers were at scene of the Uvalde school massacre??? Four hundred militarized police did not stop an 18 year old from slaughtering 19 children and 2 teachers. So! What about city council passing laws that prevent and counter gentrification? What about passing laws that require affordable housing in practice and not just in name? What about laws that require ANY of the businesses that are listed in that new so-called coalition to pay a living wage to their employees? \n\nThe sham \u0093coalition\u0094 that brought this surveillance tech back on the table only cares about building up police and prisons to protect their property. They do not care about actual human life. And they do not speak for the majority of working and middle class New Orleanians. They added non-profit orgs to their member list who NEVER consented to be added and do not share any of the same values or goals. They are sounding the alarm right now because they are afraid that headlines will make outside investors not want to buy up more property here (thus displacing more Black New Orleans, which is ultimately what they want). They are not for the people by any stretch of the imagination, and they are not for peace and safety. Real peace and safety comes from investing in communities that need resources and money. Not fascist surveillance tech and more money for the police.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I strongly recommend the expansion of the city's ability to use effective surveillance tools. This is a long overdue improvement in our use of technology to help deal with the intolerable increase in personal and property crime.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Surveillance technologies are shown to have a disparate racial impact, with Black people more likely to be misidentified as suspects and disproportionately placed under surveillance. Please block this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "It is time for the Council to take decisive action to restore order to our City. This ordinance is a step in the right direction. I urge all Council members to vote in favor of the adoption of this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "These surveillance tools don't prevent crime, they intervene after harm has already occurred. The only things that will make us safer are addressing the root causes of crime. We've tried pouring money into policing and incarceration, only to receive the same results. Our city deserves better! We deserve to be safe in our own communities which starts with prevention and that means spending our money on providing people with what they need: housing, food, and health care.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I DO NOT support making this change. \n\nI'm a computer science educator, and a lot of my work involves speaking with students about the harms that can come from using facial recognition and machine learning technology. The current law on using these technologies protects us; this proposed update will remove a lot of those protections and pave the way for these technologies to be used against citizens. \n\nFacial recognition technologies have been shown to be racist and sexist--they disproportionately misidentify women and POC, which can have lasting negative effects on the misidentified people's lives. We tend to think of technology as being more fair than humans, without being subject to human biases, but these technologies are always built and trained using human data to begin with, so they are actually more likely to perpetuate biases and stereotypes that have existed in the past--and if we aren't given insight into how these technologies are trained and what's being explicitly done to prevent and counteract those historical biases, we should assume that they are incredibly biased.\n\nWithout transparency around these technologies, we also can't trust that our data will be kept safe. Collecting and storing this data has long-lasting impacts, and we shouldn't make the decision to do it lightly. No stored data is ever truly safe. (There were over 1800 data breaches in 2021, up 68% from the year before. We've all experienced our data being leaked so often now that's it's become almost commonplace.) If you're considering allowing our data to be collected and stored, you have to consider what else that data could be used for if it were stolen or even misused internally. It could be used to commit domestic violence or report on women considering abortion or any number of other invasions of citizen's privacy and safety.\n\nPlease do not allow this technology to track us. It is not a beneficial technology--it could be one day, but it's not there yet--and it will not make our lives better.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Vote No! Please do not expand New Orleans police state with this technology which is both racist and ineffective and shrouded in secrecy. Instead, expand preventative resources to benefit the community.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "No to surveillance of citizens - no to spying for profit", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I oppose the use of surveillance technology. Rules and guardrails are not enough to mitigate the infringement on privacy and future applications of this technology. Normalizing surveillance now makes it harder to dismantle if it\u0092s abused later. Surveillance technology is dystopian. It\u0092s not part of the city we should be working to create.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a New Orleans resident I strongly oppose the implementation of the surveillance technologies that are under consideration today. It does the city no good to give away its money and it\u0092s privacy in return for a technology that neither prevents crime, nor stops them when they\u0092re happening.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Councilmember Green. Your fellow councilmembers, your constituents, and the city of New Orleans at large have spoken out at various times, repeatedly against the use of facial recognition and increased surveillance. Stop wasting our time with these Gotham city fantasies and please come to the table with something else for once. We all know Crime is the result of a lack of resources, enduring trauma, and a threadbare social safety net. Focus on these issues instead of trotting this ordinance and others like it out repeatedly. I can't believe I have to write another public comment about this because officials like you will look the problem baldly in the face and try the same failed and oppressive tactics that have not worked in other places and will not work here in New Orleans. Jeff Landry would love to get his greasy little paws on every shred of information collected by law enforcement here in order to penalize people seeking reproductive Healthcare and whatever else his small mean brain can come up with to exert his influence in our town. You cannot in one breath say you'll support abortion rights in New orleans, and then in the next approve this ordinance. Councilmembers please vote no on this ordinance and perhaps ask your colleague to at least take a look at other, actually viable, options to make our city safer.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Natalie Sharp and I'm a resident of District A. I also serve as the Coordinator for New Orleans Voices for Accountability and Safety (NOVAS). I would like to urge City Council to oppose Ord. 33,808.\n\nNot only is the surveillance technology being proposed in this ordinance extremely expensive, it also will do irreparable harm to Black and brown residents of New Orleans, without showing any promise of reducing or preventing crime. As community members have shown up time and time again to say, we do not need predictive policing, facial recognition, gait recognition, and cell-site simulators to promote public safety in our neighborhoods. We need access to education, affordable housing, resources for young people, and employment opportunities that pay fair wages. I understand that residents of New Orleans are concerned about crime and public safety, however this ordinance will only reduce trust in police and City officials further, without making our neighborhoods any safer.\n\nI also hope members of the City Council take into full consideration the impact these technologies will have on women in the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The Louisiana State Police, which own and operate the software included in this ordinance, have been abundantly clear that they will be enforcing state laws that criminalize people seeking access to abortion. I urge you all to consider the vast implications this ordinance will have on the ability of New Orleanians to seek family planning and reproductive care.\n\nI appreciate your time and attention, and urge you to kill this ordinance once and for all. Thank you.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This ordinance should not even be considered. Surveillance is not the issue when it comes to crime prevention, and a majority-minority city should know better than to spend more taxpayer dollars on technology known to be inherently racist. The existing crime cameras all over the black and brown neighborhoods in this city are already excessive. We need investment in community resources, NOT expanding police.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "BLOCK this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I do NOT consent to being surveilled by the city. This is not what the city needs. The government should not have the right or freedom to impose such an intrusive legislation as this.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "I believe that the adoption of this ordinance is essential to providing our police force with the tools needed to prevent crime in our City. I ask that all Council members vote in favor of the adoption of this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Cops lie, people die. \n\nNever forget Henry Glover. Never forget Ronald Madison. Never forget James Brissette. All three men killed by NOPD, who tried to cover up their brutal murders. \n\nNever forget that NOPD officers burned Henry Glover's body to destroy evidence. Never forget that after beating Glover to death, NOPD officer Greg McRae drove Glover's body to a levee, left the car running, and threw a flare into the vehicle. Never forget when the flare did not set a fire, McRae fired one shot into the car, which ignited it and walked away. Never forget Glover's charred body was later found in a destroyed Chevrolet Malibu parked on the levee seven days later.\n\nNever forget Danziger Bridge. Never forget NOPD shot and killed 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison. Never forget four other civilians were wounded. Never forget all the victims were African-American. Never forget none were armed or had committed any crime.\n\nNever forget homicide detective Arthur \"Archie\" Kaufman, who was found guilty of conspiring with the defendants to conceal evidence in order to make the shootings appear justified, including fabricating information for his official reports on the case. Never forget NOPD Lieutenant Michael Lohman, who encouraged officers to \"provide false stories about what had precipitated the shooting\" and plant a firearm near the scene.\n\nNever forget that these murders and cover ups are part of the reasons why NOPD is under consent decree. Never forget that NOPD, after 10 years has yet to fulfill its duty to uphold basic tenets of the consent decree. Such as bias-free policing. Such as stop, search, and arrest. Never forget that today's reformed NOPD is eager to jump into bed with today's Louisiana State Police, who are currently under federal investigation for the murder of Ronald Greene and subsequent cover-up.\n\nWe don't trust the cops. Not now, not ever. No reassurance using legislation over what tools they use or how they're trained will ever erase the past. No ordinance or \"guardrails\" will ever bring back those we lost to state violence. No ordinance or \"guardrails\" will ever prevent future murders at the hands of police. Every police killing is a failed experiment in reform.\n\nWith this new surveillance ordinance, you're putting another loaded weapon in hands of NOPD and trying to legislate where it's aimed and shot. It's almost a certainty this technology will be used in the justification of state violence against more Black people in this city. It's almost certain that within years of this ordinance passing, NOPD or LSP will use the evidence gained through the surveillance to shoot and kill unarmed residents. It's entirely certain that surveillance won't stop violence.\n\nStop trusting lying cops. Stop doing their bidding. Take their budgets and give them to the people who are starving and unhoused. At least then you'll be preventing death instead of peddling more of it.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The people of this city have already made it abundantly clear that we don't want to be surveilled with facial recognition. Giving cops this technology will only serve to make us LESS safe and line the pockets of yet another tech grifter", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "According to the City itself, New Orleans only invests 3% of its budget in youth ages 0 - 24. That means that you, as our Council members, only allocate 3% of our money to supporting young people. And yet here we are again talking about throwing more money at surveillance tools that we know don't make us safer. We need you to invest in the basic things kids and families need to thrive like affordable housing and education. Doing so will make New Orleans a happier, healthier, and safer place for all.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This will be abused and result in residents being victimized. No to this extreme surveillance", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "this allocation of resources is not a priority towards the betterment of this community. please invest into infrastructure that doesnt feed the prison complex black men. try to help them instead of surveilling them into the system. please.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The use of public money to fund what is essentially useless technology so the city can appear tough on crime while not actually addressing the root causes for that crime is typical logic. Instead of wasting the money on something that is proven to have little-to-no impact on reducing crime, we can put that money to affordable housing, healthcare, mental healthcare, and nutritious food. All of those things would go a long way toward addressing the core of what leads to crime. Don\u0092t waste our money on useless surveillance that will only further diminish individual privacy and safety. Use that money for helping the people of New Orleans.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The last thing we need is another financial boondoggle in the name of public safety. Which is what this is. You may think it's fighting crime but it's racial profiling with a new digitized manner.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This surveillance is not safety. It\u0092s racist, ineffective in preventing crime and expensive. Vote no. Investing in strategies that actually prevent crime like support for housing, youth programs, transportation, street lights, completed road work projects, staffing and extended hours at NORD, updated and subsidized electricity, etc etc etc etc.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Oppose rolling back the ban on facial recognition and characteristic tracking", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The surveillance tools that would be permitted under this ordianance are ineffective, racially biased, and expensive. I urge Council members of this vote no.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "As a retired pastor, citizen and grandparent, I strongly urge the Council to vote AGAINST this ordinance. We live in one of the greatest, most diverse, and creative communities in the world. Please uphold our dignity as a city, as families, and as individuals. We do NOT need this action to taint our fine city. Thank you!", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Honorable Council Members,\n\nAs long term advocates in the privacy and surveillance space, and active participants in numerous legislative processes in cities all around the country to increase oversight, we once again ask you not to revoke the smart and enlightened reforms that the City of New Orleans put in place a few years ago. At that time, you determined that flawed and racially biased equipment wasn't keeping anybody safe and were a distraction to the real work of preventing crimes against the public. You were right and periodic upturns and downturns in crime rates, which are generally tied to economic conditions, don't change that accurate analysis. Facial recognition continues to throw innocent Black men and women in jail for crimes they didn't commit because it cannot perform accurately with darker skin tones, predictive policing uses compromised criminal justice data to drive police resources into over-policed neighborhoods again and again to continue to sad story of mass incarceration for low-level offenses, and cell-site simulators sweep up passersby into dragnet digital spying. None of these technologies have any proven effect in crime reduction or crime clearance rates and all have substantial negatives in lack of accuracy, overreach and violations of civil rights. You can meaningfully invest in your community in many more effective ways to reduce crime, enhance policing, and increase work and educational opportunities. We encourage you to support public safety, not dystopian science fiction, which if you read the books, somehow never leads to a safer or more peaceful society. It's a challenging time. It can be tempting to look for easy answers in gadgets, however flawed or racially biased, but if you are committed to genuine outcomes and not performative gestures, then you will not revoke or modify your previous surveillance protections because they were well thought out, correct and in the interests of justice. \n\nSincerely,\n\nTracy Rosenberg\nAdvocacy Director\nOakland Privacy", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "If New Orleans is so adamant about resisting LA's abortion trigger laws, why are you even considering installing those surveillance systems? It will backfire and undo every effort.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "The crime in Orleans Parish is double of that in Jefferson Parish which has a higher population than us. Our law enforcement officers need all of the proven modern technology that they can get to help them to do their jobs. Section 147-2 looks like it was written by the criminals instead of someone who is trying to get crime off the streets of New Orleans.\nI am FOR the proposed change to amend and re-ordain Section 147-2 of the City of New Orleans regulations pertaining to the use of surveillance.\n", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This surveillance will unfairly target citizens of color, as most of this video technology does not represent any demographics clearly, except for white men. Please do not turn our city into an ineffective surveillance state.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "This surveillance ordinance is a dangerous waste of time and money. The people of New Orleans already decided that we do not want these tools to be used in our city, and that they do not make us feel safer. Passing this ordinance will open up even further the doors of mass incarceration, without actually preventing ANY crime from happening. We do not need more police officers or more surveillance to prevent crime, we need that money to be spent on housing, healthcare, food, NORD, and other youth development programs. Surveillance is not a \"short-term solution\" to our crime surge, this is a tactic to distract from the fact that the city council and mayor have not invested any additional, substantial funds into programs that will actually benefit our community and reduce crime. Additionally, it will open up New Orleans residents to potential surveillance by NOPD's partners, LSP, who have vowed to enforce the state abortion bans. Please, please, for the sake of our residents, our safety, and our privacy, vote no on this ordinance.", + "title": "Regular City Council Meeting 7/21/2023", + "publish_date": "7/21/2023" + }, + { + "page_content": "Vote FOR Amendment sponsored by Councilman Green, which will allow NOPD to use surveillance tools to locate a named suspect of a specific crime, sex crime or crime against a juvenile for which an arrest warrant has been issued.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Crime is out of control. We need to utilize all means available to take our city back. I support the Amendment to the technology ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Green, which will allow NOPD to use surveillance tools to locate a named suspect of a specific crime, sex crime or crime against a juvenile for which an arrest warrant has been issued. Thank you. Marie Horne", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "My name is Gwen Dilworth. I'm a resident of District B urging you not to expand the use of surveillance tools in New Orleans. We know that heightened surveillance doesn't make us safer or prevent the root causes of crime in our community. We also know that it is racially biased, expensive, and ineffective. NO on expansion.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I oppose the adoption of surveillance technology in New Orleans. I worry that this technology will erode civil rights for all citizens but especially for our black and brown citizens, given the racist history of these surveillance methods and the known racial biases in this technology. The money spent on surveillance technology would be better spent investing in actual officers on the streets and in social programs that address the root causes of crime.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "The use of surveillance technology to prosecute the criminal activity may be helpful , but not if it infringes on the rights of citizens protected under the 4th Amendment. I would recommend banning the use of these technologies to monitor infarctions and to issue warrants or to issue civil fines, such as traffic tickets. Perhaps a narrow scope of use that could be allowed is to assist only in enforcement efforts to identify , capture and prosecute violent criminals., but otherwise it creates a slippery path towards fascist intolerance authoritarianism .", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support a vote to amend Ordinance Section 147-2 of the City Code, to all NOPD to use surveillance tools to locate a named suspect of a specific crime, sex crime, or crime against a juvenile for which an arrest warrant has been issued. All means of surveillance should be available to the NOPD to reduce crime in New Orleans.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support Councilman Green's effort to reinstate the use of facial recognition in the effort to address the out of control crime problem, and urge the passage by the council. The city must get a handle of this problem or there will be an exodus of law abiding citizens.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Public Safety- This ought to be interesting coming from VERA, who is partly responsible along with the 701 DA they supported for many of our murdered children and adults in New Orleans for 2021 and now 2022! \nMR ASHER EXACTLY HOW MANY ARE REPEAT DUE TO THEIR ACTIONS, is it 99 PERCENT? \nPlease City Council members stop the bleeding of our citizens and set us free. Incarcerate the criminals then enter them into a forced school and trade environment in prison. \nHelp criminals by taking them out of their environment for when they are released depending on their mentality and after they realize they do not have to choose the thug life they will have a trade besides theft. \nSnowden and Omojola can then if they really want to help, enter the system and go teach the criminals on how to understand we are a country of laws that is the basis of freedom. \nREMEMBER THE VICTIMS!\nVal Cupit\nNew Orleans LA.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am in support of Councilman Green\u0092s technology amendment. \n\nSomething has to be done to stop the criminals. It's a shame I live in a city where I don't feel safe! \n\nThe use of technology by the NOPD, including facial recognition, license plate readers, social media, cellular communications, tracking systems, imaging and DNA technology, and any other surveillance systems, should be allowed. \n", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support Councilman Green's proposed Ordinance to use surveillance technology to locate a person for whom an arrest warrant has been issued.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Increased surveillance and usage of facial recognition technology does not improve the safety and security of our citizens. Our time and money is better spent on raising the living and working conditions of all rather than focusing on biased and punitive measures that do not prevent any of the underlying issues. I urge to you to consider better solutions and avoid falling into the trap of these disproven surveillance methods.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Our fair city needs to use every item and person at our disposal to stay ahead of crime in order to be proactive. Our city is far too important to our citizens and to our nation not to get a handle on crime. We all must get involved supporting our law enforcement and doing that which we can individually. Where we go one, we go all. Thank you.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I vehemently oppose the use of facial recognition software and any attempt to spend funds on surveillance. First of all, it does nothing to prevent crime. If the NOPD can't solve major crimes, then the solution is not to surveillance citizens and throw more money at the police. We need so many things, and this ain't it.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Proposed amendments to Sec 147-2 of the city code opens the floodgates to the use of surveillance technology that has not been proven to be effective at preventing crime, and has been repeatedly proven to be anti-Black in a city with a majority of Black residents. Why is the city so hell-bent on allowing these technologies despite community opposition, and no meaningful evaluation data on the current RTCC surveillance program? By pouring more resources into these surveillance programs, we miss a crucial opportunity to invest in public safety interventions that do not put civil liberties at risk. NO on these amendments.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I strongly object to any change to the our current laws that disallow the use of facial recognition software. I strongly object to all legislation that increases the use of crime cameras, facial recognition software, and any and all other types of surveillance against the innocent until proven guilty citizens of New Orleans. Stop overpolicing our citizens, and start giving them the support systems they need to be able to thrive instead of merely survive. This city council needs to stop funneling money to dubious contractors of all kinds and start getting serious about ensuring ALL children have access to education and ALL parents have access to job training, good jobs, affordable housing, public healthcare and other city services, like streets that don\u0092t destroy vehicles and parks, libraries, schools and colleges that function as they are meant to do.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I do not support amending this ordinance to allow the expansion of surveillance technology and use. We just voted two years ago not to use this surveillance technology. The benefits of using this technology for policing or other uses are greatly outweighed by the intrusions into privacy and the potential for abuse and misuse. This type of surveillance technology will always be abused. In Minnesota, police used surveillance technology to collect data on journalists. I do not want everyone\u0092s face to be ran through a system to identify them every time they step outside. That is an invasion of privacy. I have not seen evidence or studies that say surveillance will make us safer. Money and resources that will be used for surveillance would be better spent by investing in schools and economic opportunity. This surveillance leads down a bad path and does not provide enough, or any, benefits to outweigh the negatives and abuse of the technology that will follow. -CLC", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am urging the Criminal Justice Committee and the entire City Council to vote down proposed ordinance #33,639. It will roll back the protections put in place by Ordinance #33,021 that safeguard residents against the city's use of harmful surveillance tools. New Orleans should not continue to put resources into surveillance programs that are inherently racist, highly ineffective and costly. Such programs serve only to convict and incarcerate people. We don't need more surveillance to reduce crime. We need affordable housing, food security, livable wages, excellent public education, free and equitable healthcare. Perhaps we'll see a reduction in crime if we invest in people's well-being instead of their incarceration.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We all want to feel safe in our city, but Ord. 33639 is a step in the wrong direction. I write to you to say in the strongest possible terms that surveillance does not equal safety. In fact, given the racist history of surveillance and the current racial biases built into surveillance technologies, the city\u0092s use of surveillance technologies to monitor and control its residents actually decreases safety for Black and brown New Orleanians and erodes public trust in a government meant to protect us all. The City Council made the right move in December 2020 with the passage of Ord 33021. Please say NO to Ord. 33639.\n\nBefore giving NOPD free reign to use New Orleans as a testing ground for wasteful and racist technology, we need comprehensive civil liberty protections in place and transparent reporting on the use of technology. The money spent purchasing and acquiring new surveillance technologies could be used instead to address the root problems of crime: funding affordable housing, job training programs, revamping the RTA, and freedom from criminalization.\n\nAs your constituent, I urge you to vote NO on Ord. 33639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We know from many sources that trauma has played a huge part in our youth participating in \"criminal\" activity, We have not made mental health for our youth a priority, in fact we have not made YOUTH a priority period, especially the Black youth. They are the forgotten and left behind in this city. The Charter Schools have proven a failure and criminalized the behavior of even the youngest Black boys in the schools. What could we possibly expect as an outcome? Yes, true this is happening all over the country because we have Charter schools all over the country and we have not provided resources for the young and traumatized. We talk to the young and hear how bored they are and victimized in the schools and made to feel worse about themselves. We owe them more. I always think about the fact that these are the young men and women who will grow up and take care of us in our dotage, change our bed pans or not depending on what we teach them and how much love we share with them!", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "We all want to feel safe in our city, but Ord. 33639 is a step in the wrong direction. I comment today to reaffirm that surveillance does not equal safety. The City Council made the right move in December 2020 with the passage of Ord 33021. Please say NO to Ord. 33639.\n\nGiven the racist history of surveillance and the current racial biases built into surveillance technologies, the city\u0092s use of surveillance technologies to monitor and control its residents actually decreases safety for Black and brown New Orleanians and erodes public trust in a government meant to protect us all. City Council banned the use of facial recognition and three other surveillance technologies, in large part because they have been proven rife with racial bias and have resulted in the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of people of color across the country.\n\nBefore giving NOPD free reign to use New Orleans as a testing ground for wasteful and racist technology, we need comprehensive civil liberty protections in place and transparent reporting on the use of technology. The money spent purchasing and acquiring new surveillance technologies could be used instead to address the root problems of crime: funding affordable housing, job training programs, revamping the RTA, and freedom from criminalization. We know that surveillance tools don\u0092t keep us safe. Despite evidence that shows that surveillance tools do little to stop crime, we continue to pour money into them instead of proven public safety solutions like affordable housing, job training, nutritious food options, and better schools.\n\nPlease vote NO on Ord. 33639.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I would like to encourage very careful evaluation of the types of electronic surveillance used in New Orleans. The design of surveillance systems is sometimes incapable of accurate discernment of individuals of color. Expansion of systems without expansion and training of oversight and accurate implementation could lead to police interventions that are unnecessary and dangerous. Wasting police resources is not something our community can afford. Actions that may lead to further criminalization of our young black male population is a risk our community MUST not take.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Those that are opposed to using EVERY tool to find that person that harmed another is not being righteous. \nYou must seriously question their motives. \n\nConsider this, you may save a wrongful arrest by using every tool in the toolbox it may clear or cause pause to that guilt of that individual. \n\nIf this is your family member that is harmed, would you not want to help that victim? \nANTI's this cause that you are supporting, do you realize you are guessing that it will be misused? \nThose against all tools stop manipulating your support of victims you are an enabler which will not help the perpetrators.\n\nThink about the criminal life that has been preying on New Orleans citizens for the past years.\nWhy are police really leaving because YOU do not appreciate them catching the bad guys when those arrested are released in a manner of days with little or no bond. \n\nZERO TOLERANCE to harming others. Remember the victims Councilpersons, please. \nVal Cupit \nNew Orleans", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Tough questions for Mr. Asher. \n\nHow many lives would have been saved if the perpetrators were not released on 701?\nHow many repeat offenders are responsible for additional crimes?\nHow many murdered persons had no prior arrest?\nHow many murders would you say had no idea who their murderer was? \nHow many murders in 2021 are retaliatory? \n\nVal Cupit \nNew Orleans\n", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Cell phone technology, GPS and \"pings\" should be used to discover perpetrators of crime. Just as Dinesh D'Souza will show in his movie, \"2,000 Mules\", the strategy works.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I support Amendment to a technology ordinance that will allow NOPD to use surveillance tools to locate a named suspect of a specific crime, sex crime or crime against a juvenile for which an arrest warrant has been issued.\nPlease reinstate to keep our city and streets safe.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "I am in full support of providing the police with the technological equipment that they need to assist them in apprehending criminals and fighting crime.", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + }, + { + "page_content": "Our beautiful city needs actual tools to stop crime like affordable housing, job training, nutritious food options, and better schools. Ord. 33,639 expands the City\u0092s ability to use ineffective, expensive, and racially biased surveillance tools. We don't need this!! Please do better by us!", + "title": "Criminal Justice City Council Meeting 4/12/2022", + "publish_date": "6/22/2022" + } + ] +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json similarity index 100% rename from packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json rename to packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 4-12-2022.json diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json similarity index 100% rename from packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json rename to packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Criminal Justice City Council Committee Meeting 6-15-2022.json diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Regular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Regular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json similarity index 100% rename from packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Regular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json rename to packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Regular City Council Meeting 3-10-2022.json diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Regular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Regular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json similarity index 100% rename from packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Regular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json rename to packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Regular City Council Meeting 7-21-2022.json diff --git a/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json b/packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json similarity index 100% rename from packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json rename to packages/backend/src/json_public_comment_directory/archive/Smart and Sustainable Cities Committee Meeting 7-8-2022.json diff --git a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc index 1f0e7f20..63926234 100644 --- a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc +++ b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_general.dvc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ outs: -- md5: a3801ca1eb86b9981418e5594c9ff419.dir - size: 137244851 +- md5: 36fba85a3903236524e814d1f78b8aed.dir + size: 137244321 nfiles: 2 hash: md5 path: faiss_index_general diff --git a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc index 2aa33d36..a7066307 100644 --- a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc +++ b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/cache/faiss_index_in_depth.dvc @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ outs: -- md5: 48350758567819a301f732710b7d73cf.dir - size: 137244851 +- md5: 92e16223ddd6a98d03b4aa93256ff5f0.dir + size: 137244321 nfiles: 2 hash: md5 - path: faiss_index_in_depth + path: faiss_index_in_Depth From b57a635fd42853da0b822cc9ee2004d129309cd3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ayyub Ibrahim Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2024 22:31:09 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] edit: revised prompt to warn model about bias in vector db --- packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/inquirer.py | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) diff --git a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/inquirer.py b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/inquirer.py index 6ed2e2e4..6aaeb7a7 100644 --- a/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/inquirer.py +++ b/packages/googlecloud/functions/getanswer/inquirer.py @@ -212,6 +212,14 @@ def get_indepth_response_from_query(df, db, query, k): template = """ Question: {question} + ### Bias Guidelines: + + Please be aware of inherent biases within the document corpus, especially an overrepresentation of certain types of documents, such as those about surveillance. These biases may result in the retrieval of documents that are irrelevant to the question. When analyzing documents to answer the question, it is crucial to critically evaluate their relevance to the question at hand. + + To ensure accuracy and relevance in your analysis you must identify and disregard irrelevant documents by actively identifying documents that, despite being returned by the database, do not substantively address the query. Such documents should be disregarded in the analysis. + + ### Response Guidelines: + Based on the information from the New Orleans city council documents provided, answer the following question: {question}. Your answer must not exceed 5,000 tokens.