The all-seeing eye of 15,000 surveillance cameras in New York

A new video A map from the human rights organization Amnesty International maps the locations of more than 15,000 cameras used by the New York Police Department for daily surveillance and face recognition search for.A 3D model shows a camera within a range of 200 meters, which is part of a sweeping trawl. It captures the unknowing movements of nearly half of the city’s residents and places them in risky Misidentification. The organization stated that it was the first to map the locations of so many cameras in a city.

Amnesty International and a group of volunteer researchers have drawn a camera that can provide information to the New York Police Department The much criticized facial recognition Three of the city’s five districts—Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx—have a total of 15,280 systems. Brooklyn is the most monitored, with more than 8,000 cameras.

“You will never be anonymous,” said Matt Mahmoudi, an artificial intelligence researcher who led the project.The New York Police Department has used these cameras for Nearly 22,000 face recognition According to New York Police Department documents obtained by the New York privacy organization Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, searches since 2017.

“Whether you are participating in a protest, walking to a specific neighborhood, or even just going to a grocery store, facial recognition technology can use images from thousands of cameras across New York to track your face,” Mahmoudi said.

Cameras are usually placed on top of buildings, street lights, and intersections.The city itself has thousands of cameras; in addition, private companies and homeowners Grant access frequently To the police.

The police can compare the faces captured by these cameras with crime databases to find potential suspects.Earlier this year, the New York Police Department Be required to disclose Details of its facial recognition system are available for public comment. But these disclosures do not include the number or location of the cameras, nor do they include any details about how long the data is kept or with whom the data is shared.

The Amnesty International team found that cameras often gather in non-white majority communities. The most closely monitored neighborhood in New York City is Brooklyn East New York. The organization found 577 cameras within less than 2 square miles.More than 90% of Eastern New York residents Non-white, According to city data.

Facial recognition system Often behaved inaccurately Dark-skinned people are better than light-skinned people. In 2016, researchers at Georgetown University found that the police department All over the country Use facial recognition to identify potential non-white suspects better than their white counterparts.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said that the department has never arrested anyone “only based on facial recognition matches,” but only used the tool to investigate “suspects or suspects related to specific criminal investigations.”

The statement read: “If the image was taken at or near a specific crime location, the suspect’s image can be compared with a database that only includes facial photos that were legally held in law enforcement records based on previous arrests.”

Amnesty International is releasing the map and accompanying video as part of its #BantheScan campaign, urging city officials to ban police use of the tool until the city’s mayor’s primary election later this month.May, Vice Asking mayor candidates If they support banning facial recognition. Although most people did not respond to the investigation, candidate Dianne Morales told the publication that she supported the ban, while candidates Shaun Donovan and Andrew Yang suggested auditing different effects before deciding on any regulation.

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