LaToya sure does love the cameras

Oooh we're upgrading to the platinum plan. 

The New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation SafeCam NOLA program has 6,000 cameras in its index, made up of privately owned cameras that are registered with the program to be accessed by law enforcement.

SafeCam Platinum — which began its soft launch in October — integrates cameras installed outside homes and businesses into the center’s network, creating a “21st century neighborhood watch,” foundation director Melanie Talia said at a press conference recognizing the first year of the city's Real-Time Crime Center.

What they're doing here is plugging thousands of privately owned cameras into the city's "Real Time Crime Monitoring" center. Last year the Independent Police Monitor issued a critical report on these cameras questioning both their efficacy and constitutionality.  The mayor and her staff don't seem to share those concerns.  Some of their quotes this week, are downright chilling. Homeland Security director Collin Arnold refers to a "canopy" of cameras. LaToya proudly beams, "We will grow. We have only scratched the surface.” The implication is wherever you are in the city, chances are a cop will be watching whatever it is you are doing. 

Ordinarily I'd think that maybe they're exaggerating a little bit. But this Lens story suggests they very well may not be. Police may be labeling camera footage as evidence provided by "undercover officers" in their reports. In the case the story cites, it seems pretty clear there is a cop sitting behind a camera zooming in on people from afar.

When asked if there was in fact an undercover officer at the scene, NOPD spokesperson Gary Scheets told The Lens that the “NOPD does not publicly discuss investigative tactics employed during surveillance operations… In the case that is the subject of this inquiry, investigators conducted a surveillance operation from an undisclosed location that provided a clear and unobstructed view of the events that transpired.”

For Bixby, this raises concerns about how the NOPD is labeling their video surveillance operations in police reports. She also believes the surveillance and search and subsequent arrest may have violated the Fourth Amendment and infringed upon Carter’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

LaToya doesn't sound too concerned about the Fourth Amendment. She is a true believer in this stuff. Watch her during the press conference here say that the cameras literally "in real time prevent crimes from happening." Also she concludes, quite forcefully, "It will live within the fabric of the city of New Orleans for generations to come." Teach your children to expect they're being watched, I guess.