New Orleans City Council member and mayoral candidate Oliver Thomas Aug. 21 quietly withdrew, at least for now, a controversial ordinance granting police the authority to use facial recognition technology to spy on people in public.
The decision has drawn cautious optimism from civil rights groups, though Thomas could bring the ordinance up again as soon as Sept. 11.
If passed, the ordinance would authorize the use of facial recognition technology for real-time surveillance by the New Orleans Police Department or a third-party operator. New Orleans would be the first U.S. city to implement this type of program…