Bryan Lagarde, founder of Project NOLA, stands in front of a wall of screens displaying feeds from the nonprofit’s extensive crime camera network at its headquarters in New Orleans on Dec. 4. The system monitors thousands of cameras citywide to assist law enforcement and enhance public safety. Abdul Aziz for NPR
Abdul Aziz for NPR
New Orleans, home of Bourbon Street revelry, has become the first American city known to have a live facial recognition network. How that came to be is a story of private initiative and political inaction, and may point to the future public safety uses of